Transcript
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Out of Time's Abyss

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Chapter I

This is the tale of Bradley after he left Fort Dinosaur upon thewest coast of the great lake that is in the center of the island.

Upon the fourth day of September, 1916, he set out with fourcompanions, Sinclair, Brady, James, and Tippet, to search alongthe base of the barrier cliffs for a point at which they mightbe scaled.

Through the heavy Caspakian air, beneath the swollen sun, thefive men marched northwest from Fort Dinosaur, now waist-deepin lush, jungle grasses starred with myriad gorgeous blooms, nowacross open meadow-land and parklike expanses and again plunginginto dense forests of eucalyptus and acacia and giant arboreousferns with feathered fronds waving gently a hundred feet abovetheir heads.

About them upon the ground, among the trees and in the air overthem moved and swung and soared the countless forms of Caspak'steeming life. Always were they menaced by some frightful thingand seldom were their rifles cool, yet even in the brief timethey had dwelt upon Caprona they had become callous to danger,so that they swung along laughing and chatting like soldiers ona summer hike.

"This reminds me of South Clark Street," remarked Brady, who hadonce served on the traffic squad in Chicago; and as no one askedhim why, he volunteered that it was "because it's no place foran Irishman."

"South Clark Street and heaven have something in common, then,"suggested Sinclair. James and Tippet laughed, and then a hideous

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growl broke from a dense thicket ahead and diverted theirattention to other matters.

"One of them behemoths of 'Oly Writ," muttered Tippet as they cameto a halt and with guns ready awaited the almost inevitable charge.

"Hungry lot o' beggars, these," said Bradley; "always trying toeat everything they see."

For a moment no further sound came from the thicket. "He may befeeding now," suggested Bradley. "We'll try to go around him.Can't waste ammunition. Won't last forever. Follow me." And heset off at right angles to their former course, hoping to averta charge. They had taken a dozen steps, perhaps, when thethicket moved to the advance of the thing within it, the leafybranches parted, and the hideous head of a gigantic bear emerged.

"Pick your trees," whispered Bradley. "Can't waste ammunition."

The men looked about them. The bear took a couple of stepsforward, still growling menacingly. He was exposed to theshoulders now. Tippet took one look at the monster and boltedfor the nearest tree; and then the bear charged. He chargedstraight for Tippet. The other men scattered for the varioustrees they had selected--all except Bradley. He stood watchingTippet and the bear. The man had a good start and the tree wasnot far away; but the speed of the enormous creature behind himwas something to marvel at, yet Tippet was in a fair way to makehis sanctuary when his foot caught in a tangle of roots and downhe went, his rifle flying from his hand and falling severalyards away. Instantly Bradley's piece was at his shoulder, therewas a sharp report answered by a roar of mingled rage and painfrom the carnivore. Tippet attempted to scramble to his feet.

"Lie still!" shouted Bradley. "Can't waste ammunition."

The bear halted in its tracks, wheeled toward Bradley and thenback again toward Tippet. Again the former's rifle spit angrily,and the bear turned again in his direction. Bradley shoutedloudly. "Come on, you behemoth of Holy Writ!" he cried. "Come on,you duffer! Can't waste ammunition." And as he saw the bearapparently upon the verge of deciding to charge him, heencouraged the idea by backing rapidly away, knowing that anangry beast will more often charge one who moves than one wholies still.

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And the bear did charge. Like a bolt of lightning he flasheddown upon the Englishman. "Now run!" Bradley called to Tippetand himself turned in flight toward a nearby tree. The othermen, now safely ensconced upon various branches, watched the racewith breathless interest. Would Bradley make it? It seemedscarce possible. And if he didn't! James gasped at the thought.Six feet at the shoulder stood the frightful mountain ofblood-mad flesh and bone and sinew that was bearing down with thespeed of an express train upon the seemingly slow-moving man.

It all happened in a few seconds; but they were seconds thatseemed like hours to the men who watched. They saw Tippet leapto his feet at Bradley's shouted warning. They saw him run,stooping to recover his rifle as he passed the spot where ithad fallen. They saw him glance back toward Bradley, and then theysaw him stop short of the tree that might have given him safetyand turn back in the direction of the bear. Firing as he ran,Tippet raced after the great cave bear--the monstrous thing thatshould have been extinct ages before--ran for it and fired evenas the beast was almost upon Bradley. The men in the treesscarcely breathed. It seemed to them such a futile thing forTippet to do, and Tippet of all men! They had never looked uponTippet as a coward--there seemed to be no cowards among thatstrangely assorted company that Fate had gathered together fromthe four corners of the earth--but Tippet was considered acautious man. Overcautious, some thought him. How futile he andhis little pop-gun appeared as he dashed after that living engineof destruction! But, oh, how glorious! It was some such thoughtas this that ran through Brady's mind, though articulated itmight have been expressed otherwise, albeit more forcefully.

Just then it occurred to Brady to fire and he, too, opened uponthe bear, but at the same instant the animal stumbled and fellforward, though still growling most fearsomely. Tippet neverstopped running or firing until he stood within a foot of thebrute, which lay almost touching Bradley and was alreadystruggling to regain its feet. Placing the muzzle of his gunagainst the bear's ear, Tippet pulled the trigger. The creaturesank limply to the ground and Bradley scrambled to his feet.

"Good work, Tippet," he said. "Mightily obliged to you--awfulwaste of ammunition, really."

And then they resumed the march and in fifteen minutes the

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encounter had ceased even to be a topic of conversation.

For two days they continued upon their perilous way. Already thecliffs loomed high and forbidding close ahead without sign ofbreak to encourage hope that somewhere they might be scaled.Late in the afternoon the party crossed a small stream of warmwater upon the sluggishly moving surface of which floatedcountless millions of tiny green eggs surrounded by a light scumof the same color, though of a darker shade. Their pastexperience of Caspak had taught them that they might expect tocome upon a stagnant pool of warm water if they followed thestream to its source; but there they were almost certain to findsome of Caspak's grotesque, manlike creatures. Already sincethey had disembarked from the U-33 after its perilous tripthrough the subterranean channel beneath the barrier cliffs hadbrought them into the inland sea of Caspak, had they encounteredwhat had appeared to be three distinct types of these creatures.There had been the pure apes--huge, gorillalike beasts--and thosewho walked, a trifle more erect and had features with just ashade more of the human cast about them. Then there were menlike Ahm, whom they had captured and confined at the fort--Ahm,the club-man. "Well-known club-man," Tyler had called him. Ahmand his people had knowledge of a speech. They had a language,in which they were unlike the race just inferior to them, andthey walked much more erect and were less hairy: but it wasprincipally the fact that they possessed a spoken language andcarried a weapon that differentiated them from the others.

All of these peoples had proven belligerent in the extreme. Incommon with the rest of the fauna of Caprona the first law ofnature as they seemed to understand it was to kill--kill--kill.And so it was that Bradley had no desire to follow up the littlestream toward the pool near which were sure to be the caves ofsome savage tribe, but fortune played him an unkind trick, forthe pool was much closer than he imagined, its southern endreaching fully a mile south of the point at which they crossedthe stream, and so it was that after forcing their way through atangle of jungle vegetation they came out upon the edge of thepool which they had wished to avoid.

Almost simultaneously there appeared south of them a party ofnaked men armed with clubs and hatchets. Both parties halted asthey caught sight of one another. The men from the fort sawbefore them a hunting party evidently returning to its caves orvillage laden with meat. They were large men with features

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closely resembling those of the African Negro though theirskins were white. Short hair grew upon a large portion of theirlimbs and bodies, which still retained a considerable trace ofapish progenitors. They were, however, a distinctly higher typethan the Bo-lu, or club-men.

Bradley would have been glad to have averted a meeting; but as hedesired to lead his party south around the end of the pool, andas it was hemmed in by the jungle on one side and the water onthe other, there seemed no escape from an encounter.

On the chance that he might avoid a clash, Bradley steppedforward with upraised hand. "We are friends, " he called in thetongue of Ahm, the Bolu, who had been held a prisoner at thefort; "permit us to pass in peace. We will not harm you."

At this the hatchet-men set up a great jabbering with muchlaughter, loud and boisterous. "No," shouted one, "you will notharm us, for we shall kill you. Come! We kill! We kill!"And with hideous shouts they charged down upon the Europeans.

"Sinclair, you may fire," said Bradley quietly." Pick offthe leader. Can't waste ammunition."

The Englishman raised his piece to his shoulder and took quickaim at the breast of the yelling savage leaping toward them.Directly behind the leader came another hatchet-man, and with thereport of Sinclair's rifle both warriors lunged forward in thetall grass, pierced by the same bullet. The effect upon the restof the band was electrical. As one man they came to a suddenhalt, wheeled to the east and dashed into the jungle, where themen could hear them forcing their way in an effort to put as muchdistance as possible between themselves and the authors of thisnew and frightful noise that killed warriors at a great distance.

Both the savages were dead when Bradley approached to examinethem, and as the Europeans gathered around, other eyes were bentupon them with greater curiosity than they displayed for thevictim of Sinclair's bullet. When the party again took up themarch around the southern end of the pool the owner of the eyesfollowed them--large, round eyes, almost expressionless exceptfor a certain cold cruelty which glinted malignly from undertheir pale gray irises.

All unconscious of the stalker, the men came, late in the

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afternoon, to a spot which seemed favorable as a campsite.A cold spring bubbled from the base of a rocky formation whichoverhung and partially encircled a small inclosure. At Bradley'scommand, the men took up the duties assigned them--gatheringwood, building a cook-fire and preparing the evening meal.It was while they were thus engaged that Brady's attention wasattracted by the dismal flapping of huge wings. He glanced up,expecting to see one of the great flying reptiles of a bygoneage, his rifle ready in his hand. Brady was a brave man. He hadgroped his way up narrow tenement stairs and taken an armedmaniac from a dark room without turning a hair; but now as helooked up, he went white and staggered back.

"Gawd!" he almost screamed. "What is it?"

Attracted by Brady's cry the others seized their rifles as theyfollowed his wide-eyed, frozen gaze, nor was there one of themthat was not moved by some species of terror or awe. Then Bradyspoke again in an almost inaudible voice. "Holy Mother protectus--it's a banshee!"

Bradley, always cool almost to indifference in the face ofdanger, felt a strange, creeping sensation run over his flesh, asslowly, not a hundred feet above them, the thing flapped itselfacross the sky, its huge, round eyes glaring down upon them.And until it disappeared over the tops of the trees of a near-bywood the five men stood as though paralyzed, their eyes neverleaving the weird shape; nor never one of them appearing to recallthat he grasped a loaded rifle in his hands.

With the passing of the thing, came the reaction. Tippet sank tothe ground and buried his face in his hands. "Oh, Gord," he moaned."Tyke me awy from this orful plice." Brady, recovered from thefirst shock, swore loud and luridly. He called upon all thesaints to witness that he was unafraid and that anybody with halfan eye could have seen that the creature was nothing more than"one av thim flyin' alligators" that they all were familiar with.

"Yes," said Sinclair with fine sarcasm, "we've saw so many ofthem with white shrouds on 'em."

"Shut up, you fool!" growled Brady. "If you know so much, tellus what it was after bein' then."

Then he turned toward Bradley. "What was it, sor, do you think?"

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he asked.

Bradley shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "It looked likea winged human being clothed in a flowing white robe. Its facewas more human than otherwise. That is the way it looked to me;but what it really was I can't even guess, for such a creature isas far beyond my experience or knowledge as it is beyond yours.All that I am sure of is that whatever else it may have been, itwas quite material--it was no ghost; rather just another of thestrange forms of life which we have met here and with which weshould be accustomed by this time."

Tippet looked up. His face was still ashy. "Yer cawn't tellme," he cried. "Hi seen hit. Blime, Hi seen hit. Hit was hadead man flyin' through the hair. Didn't Hi see 'is heyes?Oh, Gord! Didn't Hi see 'em?"

"It didn't look like any beast or reptile to me," spoke up Sinclair."It was lookin' right down at me when I looked up and I saw itsface plain as I see yours. It had big round eyes that looked allcold and dead, and its cheeks were sunken in deep, and I could seeits yellow teeth behind thin, tight-drawn lips--like a man who hadbeen dead a long while, sir," he added, turning toward Bradley.

"Yes!" James had not spoken since the apparition had passed over them,and now it was scarce speech which he uttered--rather a series ofarticulate gasps. "Yes--dead--a--long--while. It--means something.It--come--for some--one. For one--ofus. One--of us is goin'--to die. I'm goin' to die!" he ended in a wail.

"Come! Come!" snapped Bradley. "Won't do. Won't do at all.Get to work, all of you. Waste of time. Can't waste time."

His authoritative tones brought them all up standing, andpresently each was occupied with his own duties; but each workedin silence and there was no singing and no bantering such as hadmarked the making of previous camps. Not until they had eatenand to each had been issued the little ration of smoking tobaccoallowed after each evening meal did any sign of a relaxation oftaut nerves appear. It was Brady who showed the first signs ofreturning good spirits. He commenced humming "It's a Long Way toTipperary" and presently to voice the words, but he was well intohis third song before anyone joined him, and even then thereseemed a dismal note in even the gayest of tunes.

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A huge fire blazed in the opening of their rocky shelter that theprowling carnivora might be kept at bay; and always one man stoodon guard, watchfully alert against a sudden rush by some maddenedbeast of the jungle. Beyond the fire, yellow-green spots offlame appeared, moved restlessly about, disappeared andreappeared, accompanied by a hideous chorus of screams and growlsand roars as the hungry meat-eaters hunting through the nightwere attracted by the light or the scent of possible prey.

But to such sights and sounds as these the five men hadbecome callous. They sang or talked as unconcernedly as theymight have done in the bar-room of some publichouse at home.

Sinclair was standing guard. The others were listening toBrady's description of traffic congestion at the Rush Streetbridge during the rush hour at night. The fire crackled cheerily.The owners of the yellow-green eyes raised their frightful chorusto the heavens. Conditions seemed again to have returned to normal.And then, as though the hand of Death had reached out and touchedthem all, the five men tensed into sudden rigidity.

Above the nocturnal diapason of the teeming jungle sounded adismal flapping of wings and over head, through the thick night,a shadowy form passed across the diffused light of the flaringcamp-fire. Sinclair raised his rifle and fired. An eerie wailfloated down from above and the apparition, whatever it mighthave been, was swallowed by the darkness. For several secondsthe listening men heard the sound of those dismally flapping wingslessening in the distance until they could no longer be heard.

Bradley was the first to speak. "Shouldn't have fired,Sinclair," he said; "can't waste ammunition." But there wasno note of censure in his tone. It was as though he understoodthe nervous reaction that had compelled the other's act.

"I couldn't help it, sir," said Sinclair. "Lord, it would takean iron man to keep from shootin' at that awful thing. Do youbelieve in ghosts, sir?"

"No," replied Bradley. "No such things."

"I don't know about that," said Brady. "There was a womanmurdered over on the prairie near Brighton--her throat was cutfrom ear to ear, and--"

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"Shut up," snapped Bradley.

"My grandaddy used to live down Coppington wy," said Tippet."They were a hold ruined castle on a 'ill near by, hand at midnightthey used to see pale blue lights through the windows an 'ear--"

"Will you close your hatch!" demanded Bradley. "You fools willhave yourselves scared to death in a minute. Now go to sleep."

But there was little sleep in camp that night until utterexhaustion overtook the harassed men toward morning; nor wasthere any return of the weird creature that had set the nerves ofeach of them on edge.

The following forenoon the party reached the base of the barriercliffs and for two days marched northward in an effort todiscover a break in the frowning abutment that raised its rockyface almost perpendicularly above them, yet nowhere was there theslightest indication that the cliffs were scalable.

Disheartened, Bradley determined to turn back toward the fort, ashe already had exceeded the time decided upon by Bowen Tyler andhimself for the expedition. The cliffs for many miles had beentrending in a northeasterly direction, indicating to Bradley thatthey were approaching the northern extremity of the island.According to the best of his calculations they had madesufficient easting during the past two days to have brought themto a point almost directly north of Fort Dinosaur and as nothingcould be gained by retracing their steps along the base of thecliffs he decided to strike due south through the unexploredcountry between them and the fort.

That night (September 9, 1916), they made camp a short distancefrom the cliffs beside one of the numerous cool springs that areto be found within Caspak, oftentimes close beside the stillmore numerous warm and hot springs which feed the many pools.After supper the men lay smoking and chatting among themselves.Tippet was on guard. Fewer night prowlers threatened them, andthe men were commenting upon the fact that the farther north theyhad traveled the smaller the number of all species of animalsbecame, though it was still present in what would have seemedappalling plenitude in any other part of the world. The diminutionin reptilian life was the most noticeable change in the fauna ofnorthern Caspak. Here, however, were forms they had not met

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elsewhere, several of which were of gigantic proportions.

According to their custom all, with the exception of the man onguard, sought sleep early, nor, once disposed upon the ground forslumber, were they long in finding it. It seemed to Bradley thathe had scarcely closed his eyes when he was brought to his feet,wide awake, by a piercing scream which was punctuated by thesharp report of a rifle from the direction of the fire whereTippet stood guard. As he ran toward the man, Bradley heardabove him the same uncanny wail that had set every nerve on edgeseveral nights before, and the dismal flapping of huge wings.He did not need to look up at the white-shrouded figure wingingslowly away into the night to know that their grim visitorhad returned.

The muscles of his arm, reacting to the sight and sound of themenacing form, carried his hand to the butt of his pistol; butafter he had drawn the weapon, he immediately returned it to itsholster with a shrug.

"What for?" he muttered. "Can't waste ammunition." Then hewalked quickly to where Tippet lay sprawled upon his face.By this time James, Brady and Sinclair were at his heels, eachwith his rifle in readiness.

"Is he dead, sir?" whispered James as Bradley kneeled beside theprostrate form.

Bradley turned Tippet over on his back and pressed an ear closeto the other's heart. In a moment he raised his head."Fainted," he announced. "Get water. Hurry!" Then he loosenedTippet's shirt at the throat and when the water was brought,threw a cupful in the man's face. Slowly Tippet regainedconsciousness and sat up. At first he looked curiously into thefaces of the men about him; then an expression of terroroverspread his features. He shot a startled glance up into theblack void above and then burying his face in his arms began tosob like a child.

"What's wrong, man?" demanded Bradley. "Buck up! Can't playcry-baby. Waste of energy. What happened?"

"Wot 'appened, sir!" wailed Tippet. "Oh, Gord, sir! Hit came back.Hit came for me, sir. Right hit did, sir; strite hat me, sir;hand with long w'ite 'ands it clawed for me. Oh, Gord! Hit almost

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caught me, sir. Hi'm has good as dead; Hi'm a marked man; that'swot Hi ham. Hit was a-goin' for to carry me horf, sir."

"Stuff and nonsense," snapped Bradley. "Did you get a good lookat it?"

Tippet said that he did--a much better look than he wanted.The thing had almost clutched him, and he had looked straightinto its eyes--"dead heyes in a dead face," he had described them.

"Wot was it after bein', do you think?" inquired Brady.

"Hit was Death," moaned Tippet, shuddering, and again a pall ofgloom fell upon the little party.

The following day Tippet walked as one in a trance. He neverspoke except in reply to a direct question, which more often thannot had to be repeated before it could attract his attention.He insisted that he was already a dead man, for if the thing didn'tcome for him during the day he would never live through anothernight of agonized apprehension, waiting for the frightful endthat he was positive was in store for him. "I'll see to that,"he said, and they all knew that Tippet meant to take his own lifebefore darkness set in.

Bradley tried to reason with him, in his short, crisp way, butsoon saw the futility of it; nor could he take the man's weaponsfrom him without subjecting him to almost certain death from anyof the numberless dangers that beset their way.

The entire party was moody and glum. There was none of thebantering that had marked their intercourse before, even in theface of blighting hardships and hideous danger. This was a newmenace that threatened them, something that they couldn'texplain; and so, naturally, it aroused within them superstitiousfear which Tippet's attitude only tended to augment. To addfurther to their gloom, their way led through a dense forest,where, on account of the underbrush, it was difficult to makeeven a mile an hour. Constant watchfulness was required to avoidthe many snakes of various degrees of repulsiveness and enormitythat infested the wood; and the only ray of hope they had tocling to was that the forest would, like the majority ofCaspakian forests, prove to be of no considerable extent.

Bradley was in the lead when he came suddenly upon a grotesque

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creature of Titanic proportions. Crouching among the trees,which here commenced to thin out slightly, Bradley saw whatappeared to be an enormous dragon devouring the carcass ofa mammoth. From frightful jaws to the tip of its long tail itwas fully forty feet in length. Its body was covered with platesof thick skin which bore a striking resemblance to armor-plate.The creature saw Bradley almost at the same instant that he sawit and reared up on its enormous hind legs until its head towereda full twenty-five feet above the ground. From the cavernousjaws issued a hissing sound of a volume equal to the escaping steamfrom the safety-valves of half a dozen locomotives, and then thecreature came for the man.

"Scatter!" shouted Bradley to those behind him; and all butTippet heeded the warning. The man stood as though dazed, andwhen Bradley saw the other's danger, he too stopped and wheelingabout sent a bullet into the massive body forcing its way throughthe trees toward him. The shot struck the creature in the bellywhere there was no protecting armor, eliciting a new note whichrose in a shrill whistle and ended in a wail. It was then thatTippet appeared to come out of his trance, for with a cry ofterror he turned and fled to the left. Bradley, seeing that hehad as good an opportunity as the others to escape, now turned hisattention to extricating himself; and as the woods seemed denseon the right, he ran in that direction, hoping that the close-setboles would prevent pursuit on the part of the great reptile.The dragon paid no further attention to him, however, for Tippet'ssudden break for liberty had attracted its attention; and afterTippet it went, bowling over small trees, uprooting underbrushand leaving a wake behind it like that of a small tornado.

Bradley, the moment he had discovered the thing was pursuingTippet, had followed it. He was afraid to fire for fear ofhitting the man, and so it was that he came upon them at the verymoment that the monster lunged its great weight forward upon thedoomed man. The sharp, three-toed talons of the forelimbs seizedpoor Tippet, and Bradley saw the unfortunate fellow lifted highabove the ground as the creature again reared up on its hindlegs, immediately transferring Tippet's body to its gaping jaws,which closed with a sickening, crunching sound as Tippet's bonescracked beneath the great teeth.

Bradley half raised his rifle to fire again and then lowered itwith a shake of his head. Tippet was beyond succor--why waste abullet that Caspak could never replace? If he could now escape

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the further notice of the monster it would be a wiser act than tothrow his life away in futile revenge. He saw that the reptilewas not looking in his direction, and so he slipped noiselesslybehind the bole of a large tree and thence quietly faded away inthe direction he believed the others to have taken. At what heconsidered a safe distance he halted and looked back. Half hiddenby the intervening trees he still could see the huge head and themassive jaws from which protrude the limp legs of the dead man.Then, as though struck by the hammer of Thor, the creaturecollapsed and crumpled to the ground. Bradley's single bullet,penetrating the body through the soft skin of the belly, had slainthe Titan.

A few minutes later, Bradley found the others of the party.The four returned cautiously to the spot where the creature layand after convincing themselves that it was quite dead, came closeto it. It was an arduous and gruesome job extricating Tippet'smangled remains from the powerful jaws, the men working for themost part silently.

"It was the work of the banshee all right," muttered Brady."It warned poor Tippet, it did."

"Hit killed him, that's wot hit did, hand hit'll kill some moreof us," said James, his lower lip trembling.

"If it was a ghost," interjected Sinclair, "and I don't say as itwas; but if it was, why, it could take on any form it wanted to.It might have turned itself into this thing, which ain't nonatural thing at all, just to get poor Tippet. If it had of beena lion or something else humanlike it wouldn't look so strange;but this here thing ain't humanlike. There ain't no such thingan' never was."

"Bullets don't kill ghosts," said Bradley, "so this couldn't havebeen a ghost. Furthermore, there are no such things. I've beentrying to place this creature. Just succeeded. It's a tyrannosaurus.Saw picture of skeleton in magazine. There's one in New YorkNatural History Museum. Seems to me it said it was found in placecalled Hell Creek somewhere in western North America. Supposed tohave lived about six million years ago."

"Hell Creek's in Montana," said Sinclair. "I used to punch cowsin Wyoming, an' I've heard of Hell Creek. Do you s'pose thatthere thing's six million years old?" His tone was skeptical.

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"No," replied Bradley; "But it would indicate that the islandof Caprona has stood almost without change for more than sixmillion years."

The conversation and Bradley's assurance that the creature wasnot of supernatural origin helped to raise a trifle the spiritsof the men; and then came another diversion in the form ofravenous meat-eaters attracted to the spot by the uncanny senseof smell which had apprised them of the presence of flesh, killedand ready for the eating.

It was a constant battle while they dug a grave and consigned allthat was mortal of John Tippet to his last, lonely resting-place.Nor would they leave then; but remained to fashion a rude head-stone from a crumbling out-cropping of sandstone and to gathera mass of the gorgeous flowers growing in such great profusionaround them and heap the new-made grave with bright blooms.Upon the headstone Sinclair scratched in rude characters the words:

HERE LIES JOHN TIPPET ENGLISHMANKILLED BY TYRANNOSAURUS 10 SEPT. A.D. 1916 R.I.P.

and Bradley repeated a short prayer before they left theircomrade forever.

For three days the party marched due south through forests andmeadow-land and great park-like areas where countless herbivorousanimals grazed--deer and antelope and bos and the little ecca,the smallest species of Caspakian horse, about the size of a rabbit.There were other horses too; but all were small, the largest beingnot above eight hands in height. Preying continually upon theherbivora were the meat-eaters, large and small--wolves, hyaenadons,panthers, lions, tigers, and bear as well as several large andferocious species of reptilian life.

On September twelfth the party scaled a line of sandstone cliffswhich crossed their route toward the south; but they crossed themonly after an encounter with the tribe that inhabited the numerouscaves which pitted the face of the escarpment. That night theycamped upon a rocky plateau which was sparsely wooded with jarrah,

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and here once again they were visited by the weird, nocturnalapparition that had already filled them with a nameless terror.

As on the night of September ninth the first warning camefrom the sentinel standing guard over his sleeping companions.A terror-stricken cry punctuated by the crack of a rifle broughtBradley, Sinclair and Brady to their feet in time to see James,with clubbed rifle, battling with a white-robed figure thathovered on widespread wings on a level with the Englishman's head.As they ran, shouting, forward, it was obvious to them that theweird and terrible apparition was attempting to seize James; butwhen it saw the others coming to his rescue, it desisted,flapping rapidly upward and away, its long, ragged wings givingforth the peculiarly dismal notes which always characterized thesound of its flying.

Bradley fired at the vanishing menacer of their peace and safety;but whether he scored a hit or not, none could tell, though,following the shot, there was wafted back to them the samepiercing wail that had on other occasions frozen their marrow.

Then they turned toward James, who lay face downward upon theground, trembling as with ague. For a time he could not evenspeak, but at last regained sufficient composure to tell themhow the thing must have swooped silently upon him from aboveand behind as the first premonition of danger he had receivedwas when the long, clawlike fingers had clutched him beneatheither arm. In the melee his rifle had been discharged and hehad broken away at the same instant and turned to defend himselfwith the butt. The rest they had seen.

From that instant James was an absolutely broken man.He maintained with shaking lips that his doom was sealed, thatthe thing had marked him for its own, and that he was as good asdead, nor could any amount of argument or raillery convince himto the contrary. He had seen Tippet marked and claimed and nowhe had been marked. Nor were his constant reiterations of thisbelief without effect upon the rest of the party. Even Bradleyfelt depressed, though for the sake of the others he managed tohide it beneath a show of confidence he was far from feeling.

And on the following day William James was killed by asaber-tooth tiger--September 13, 1916. Beneath a jarrah tree onthe stony plateau on the northern edge of the Sto-lu country inthe land that Time forgot, he lies in a lonely grave marked by a

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rough headstone.

Southward from his grave marched three grim and silent men.To the best of Bradley's reckoning they were some twenty-fivemiles north of Fort Dinosaur, and that they might reach the forton the following day, they plodded on until darkness overtook them.With comparative safety fifteen miles away, they made camp at last;but there was no singing now and no joking. In the bottom of hisheart each prayed that they might come safely through just thisnight, for they knew that during the morrow they would make thefinal stretch, yet the nerves of each were taut with strainedanticipation of what gruesome thing might flap down upon them fromthe black sky, marking another for its own. Who would be the next?

As was their custom, they took turns at guard, each man doing twohours and then arousing the next. Brady had gone on from eightto ten, followed by Sinclair from ten to twelve, then Bradley hadbeen awakened. Brady would stand the last guard from two tofour, as they had determined to start the moment that it becamelight enough to insure comparative safety upon the trail.

The snapping of a twig aroused Brady out of a dead sleep, and ashe opened his eyes, he saw that it was broad daylight and that attwenty paces from him stood a huge lion. As the man sprang tohis feet, his rifle ready in his hand, Sinclair awoke and took inthe scene in a single swift glance. The fire was out and Bradleywas nowhere in sight. For a long moment the lion and the meneyed one another. The latter had no mind to fire if the beastminded its own affairs--they were only too glad to let it go itsway if it would; but the lion was of a different mind.

Suddenly the long tail snapped stiffly erect, and as though ithad been attached to two trigger fingers the two rifles spoke inunison, for both men knew this signal only too well--theimmediate forerunner of a deadly charge. As the brute's head hadbeen raised, his spine had not been visible; and so they did whatthey had learned by long experience was best to do. Each covereda front leg, and as the tail snapped aloft, fired. With ahideous roar the mighty flesh-eater lurched forward to the groundwith both front legs broken. It was an easy accomplishment inthe instant before the beast charged--after, it would have beenwell-nigh an impossible feat. Brady stepped close in and finishedhim with a shot in the base of the brain lest his terrificroarings should attract his mate or others of their kind.

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Then the two men turned and looked at one another. "Where isLieutenant Bradley?" asked Sinclair. They walked to the fire.Only a few smoking embers remained. A few feet away layBradley's rifle. There was no evidence of a struggle. The twomen circled about the camp twice and on the last lap Bradystooped and picked up an object which had lain about ten yardsbeyond the fire--it was Bradley's cap. Again the two lookedquestioningly at one another, and then, simultaneously, bothpairs of eyes swung upward and searched the sky. A moment laterBrady was examining the ground about the spot where Bradley's caphad lain. It was one of those little barren, sandy stretchesthat they had found only upon this stony plateau. Brady's ownfootsteps showed as plainly as black ink upon white paper; buthis was the only foot that had marred the smooth, windsweptsurface--there was no sign that Bradley had crossed the spotupon the surface of the ground, and yet his cap lay welltoward the center of it.

Breakfastless and with shaken nerves the two survivors plungedmadly into the long day's march. Both were strong, courageous,resourceful men; but each had reached the limit of human nerveendurance and each felt that he would rather die than spendanother night in the hideous open of that frightful land.Vivid in the mind of each was a picture of Bradley's end, forthough neither had witnessed the tragedy, both could imagine almostprecisely what had occurred. They did not discuss it--they didnot even mention it--yet all day long the thing was uppermost inthe mind of each and mingled with it a similar picture with himselfas victim should they fail to make Fort Dinosaur before dark.

And so they plunged forward at reckless speed, their clothes,their hands, their faces torn by the retarding underbrush thatreached forth to hinder them. Again and again they fell; but beit to their credit that the one always waited and helped theother and that into the mind of neither entered the thought orthe temptation to desert his companion--they would reach the forttogether if both survived, or neither would reach it.

They encountered the usual number of savage beasts and reptiles;but they met them with a courageous recklessness born of desperation,and by virtue of the very madness of the chances they took, theycame through unscathed and with the minimum of delay.

Shortly after noon they reached the end of the plateau.Before them was a drop of two hundred feet to the valley beneath.

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To the left, in the distance, they could see the waters of thegreat inland sea that covers a considerable portion of the areaof the crater island of Caprona and at a little lesser distanceto the south of the cliffs they saw a thin spiral of smoke arisingabove the tree-tops.

The landscape was familiar--each recognized it immediatelyand knew that that smoky column marked the spot where Dinosaurhad stood. Was the fort still there, or did the smoke arisefrom the smoldering embers of the building they had helped tofashion for the housing of their party? Who could say!

Thirty precious minutes that seemed as many hours to theimpatient men were consumed in locating a precarious way from thesummit to the base of the cliffs that bounded the plateau uponthe south, and then once again they struck off upon level groundtoward their goal. The closer they approached the fort thegreater became their apprehension that all would not be well.They pictured the barracks deserted or the small companymassacred and the buildings in ashes. It was almost in a frenzyof fear that they broke through the final fringe of jungle andstood at last upon the verge of the open meadow a half-mile fromFort Dinosaur.

"Lord!" ejaculated Sinclair. "They are still there!" And he fellto his knees, sobbing.

Brady trembled like a leaf as he crossed himself and gave silentthanks, for there before them stood the sturdy ramparts ofDinosaur and from inside the inclosure rose a thin spiral ofsmoke that marked the location of the cook-house. All was well,then, and their comrades were preparing the evening meal!

Across the clearing they raced as though they had not alreadycovered in a single day a trackless, primeval country thatmight easily have required two days by fresh and untired men.Within hailing distance they set up such a loud shouting thatpresently heads appeared above the top of the parapet and soonanswering shouts were rising from within Fort Dinosaur. A momentlater three men issued from the inclosure and came forward tomeet the survivors and listen to the hurried story of the eleveneventful days since they had set out upon their expedition to thebarrier cliffs. They heard of the deaths of Tippet and James andof the disappearance of Lieutenant Bradley, and a new terrorsettled upon Dinosaur.

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Olson, the Irish engineer, with Whitely and Wilson constitutedthe remnants of Dinosaur's defenders, and to Brady and Sinclairthey narrated the salient events that had transpired since Bradleyand his party had marched away on September 4th. They told themof the infamous act of Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts and hisGerman crew who had stolen the U-33, breaking their parole, andsteaming away toward the subterranean opening through the barriercliffs that carried the waters of the inland sea into the openPacific beyond; and of the cowardly shelling of the fort.

They told of the disappearance of Miss La Rue in the night ofSeptember 11th, and of the departure of Bowen Tyler in search ofher, accompanied only by his Airedale, Nobs. Thus of theoriginal party of eleven Allies and nine Germans that hadconstituted the company of the U-33 when she left English watersafter her capture by the crew of the English tug there were butfive now to be accounted for at Fort Dinosaur. Benson, Tippet,James, and one of the Germans were known to be dead. It wasassumed that Bradley, Tyler and the girl had already succumbed tosome of the savage denizens of Caspak, while the fate of theGermans was equally unknown, though it might readily be believedthat they had made good their escape. They had had ample time toprovision the ship and the refining of the crude oil they haddiscovered north of the fort could have insured them an amplesupply to carry them back to Germany.

Chapter 2

When bradley went on guard at midnight, September 14th, histhoughts were largely occupied with rejoicing that the nightwas almost spent without serious mishap and that the morrowwould doubtless see them all safely returned to Fort Dinosaur.The hopefulness of his mood was tinged with sorrow by recollectionof the two members of his party who lay back there in the savagewilderness and for whom there would never again be a homecoming.

No premonition of impending ill cast gloom over his anticipationsfor the coming day, for Bradley was a man who, while taking everyprecaution against possible danger, permitted no gloomyforebodings to weigh down his spirit. When danger threatened, hewas prepared; but he was not forever courting disaster, and so it

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was that when about one o'clock in the morning of the fifteenth,he heard the dismal flapping of giant wings overhead, he wasneither surprised nor frightened but idly prepared for an attackhe had known might reasonably be expected.

The sound seemed to come from the south, and presently, low abovethe trees in that direction, the man made out a dim, shadowy formcircling slowly about. Bradley was a brave man, yet so keen wasthe feeling of revulsion engendered by the sight and sound ofthat grim, uncanny shape that he distinctly felt the goosefleshrise over the surface of his body, and it was with difficultythat he refrained from following an instinctive urge to fire uponthe nocturnal intruder. Better, far better would it have beenhad he given in to the insistent demand of his subconsciousmentor; but his almost fanatical obsession to save ammunitionproved now his undoing, for while his attention was riveted uponthe thing circling before him and while his ears were filled withthe beating of its wings, there swooped silently out of the blacknight behind him another weird and ghostly shape. With its hugewings partly closed for the dive and its white robe fluttering inits wake, the apparition swooped down upon the Englishman.

So great was the force of the impact when the thing struckBradley between the shoulders that the man was half stunned.His rifle flew from his grasp; he felt clawlike talons of greatstrength seize him beneath his arms and sweep him off his feet;and then the thing rose swiftly with him, so swiftly that his capwas blown from his head by the rush of air as he was bornerapidly upward into the inky sky and the cry of warning to hiscompanions was forced back into his lungs.

The creature wheeled immediately toward the east and was at oncejoined by its fellow, who circled them once and then fell inbehind them. Bradley now realized the strategy that the pairhad used to capture him and at once concluded that he was in thepower of reasoning beings closely related to the human race ifnot actually of it.

Past experience suggested that the great wings were a part ofsome ingenious mechanical device, for the limitations of thehuman mind, which is always loath to accept aught beyond its ownlittle experience, would not permit him to entertain the ideathat the creatures might be naturally winged and at the same timeof human origin. From his position Bradley could not see thewings of his captor, nor in the darkness had he been able to

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examine those of the second creature closely when it circledbefore him. He listened for the puff of a motor or some othertelltale sound that would prove the correctness of his theory.However, he was rewarded with nothing more than the constantflap-flap.

Presently, far below and ahead, he saw the waters of the inlandsea, and a moment later he was borne over them. Then his captordid that which proved beyond doubt to Bradley that he was in thehands of human beings who had devised an almost perfect scheme ofduplicating, mechanically, the wings of a bird--the thing spoketo its companion and in a language that Bradley partiallyunderstood, since he recognized words that he had learned fromthe savage races of Caspak. From this he judged that they werehuman, and being human, he knew that they could have no naturalwings--for who had ever seen a human being so adorned!Therefore their wings must be mechanical. Thus Bradley reasoned--thus most of us reason; not by what might be possible; but by whathas fallen within the range of our experience.

What he heard them say was to the effect that having coveredhalf the distance the burden would now be transferred from oneto the other. Bradley wondered how the exchange was tobe accomplished. He knew that those giant wings would notpermit the creatures to approach one another closely enoughto effect the transfer in this manner; but he was soon todiscover that they had other means of doing it.

He felt the thing that carried him rise to a greater altitude,and below he glimpsed momentarily the second white-robed figure;then the creature above sounded a low call, it was answered frombelow, and instantly Bradley felt the clutching talons releasehim; gasping for breath, he hurtled downward through space.

For a terrifying instant, pregnant with horror, Bradley fell;then something swooped for him from behind, another pair oftalons clutched him beneath the arms, his downward rush waschecked, within another hundred feet, and close to the surfaceof the sea he was again borne upward. As a hawk dives for asongbird on the wing, so this great, human bird dived for Bradley.It was a harrowing experience, but soon over, and once againthe captive was being carried swiftly toward the east and whatfate he could not even guess.

It was immediately following his transfer in mid-air that Bradley

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made out the shadowy form of a large island far ahead, and notlong after, he realized that this must be the intendeddestination of his captors. Nor was he mistaken. Three quartersof an hour from the time of his seizure his captors droppedgently to earth in the strangest city that human eye had everrested upon. Just a brief glimpse of his immediate surroundingsvouchsafed Bradley before he was whisked into the interior of oneof the buildings; but in that momentary glance he saw strangepiles of stone and wood and mud fashioned into buildings of allconceivable sizes and shapes, sometimes piled high on top of oneanother, sometimes standing alone in an open court-way, butusually crowded and jammed together, so that there were nostreets or alleys between them other than a few which endedalmost as soon as they began. The principal doorways appeared tobe in the roofs, and it was through one of these that Bradley wasinducted into the dark interior of a low-ceiled room. Here hewas pushed roughly into a corner where he tripped over a thickmat, and there his captors left him. He heard them moving aboutin the darkness for a moment, and several times he saw theirlarge luminous eyes glowing in the dark. Finally, thesedisappeared and silence reigned, broken only by the breathing ofthe creature which indicated to the Englishman that they weresleeping somewhere in the same apartment.

It was now evident that the mat upon the floor was intended forsleeping purposes and that the rough shove that had sent him toit had been a rude invitation to repose. After taking stock ofhimself and finding that he still had his pistol and ammunition,some matches, a little tobacco, a canteen full of water and arazor, Bradley made himself comfortable upon the mat and was soonasleep, knowing that an attempted escape in the darkness withoutknowledge of his surroundings would be predoomed to failure.

When he awoke, it was broad daylight, and the sight that met hiseyes made him rub them again and again to assure himself thatthey were really open and that he was not dreaming. A broadshaft of morning light poured through the open doorway in theceiling of the room which was about thirty feet square, orroughly square, being irregular in shape, one side curvingoutward, another being indented by what might have been thecorner of another building jutting into it, another alcoved bythree sides of an octagon, while the fourth was serpentinein contour. Two windows let in more daylight, while two doorsevidently gave ingress to other rooms. The walls were partiallyceiled with thin strips of wood, nicely fitted and finished,

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partially plastered and the rest covered with a fine, woven cloth.Figures of reptiles and beasts were painted without regard toany uniform scheme here and there upon the walls. A strikingfeature of the decorations consisted of several engaged columnsset into the walls at no regular intervals, the capitals ofeach supporting a human skull the cranium of which touched theceiling, as though the latter was supported by these grimreminders either of departed relatives or of some hideous tribalrite--Bradley could not but wonder which.

Yet it was none of these things that filled him with greatestwonder--no, it was the figures of the two creatures that hadcaptured him and brought him hither. At one end of the room astout pole about two inches in diameter ran horizontally fromwall to wall some six or seven feet from the floor, its endssecurely set in two of the columns. Hanging by their knees fromthis perch, their heads downward and their bodies wrapped intheir huge wings, slept the creatures of the night before--liketwo great, horrid bats they hung, asleep.

As Bradley gazed upon them in wide-eyed astonishment, he sawplainly that all his intelligence, all his acquired knowledgethrough years of observation and experience were set at naught bythe simple evidence of the fact that stood out glaringly beforehis eyes--the creatures' wings were not mechanical devices but asnatural appendages, growing from their shoulderblades, as weretheir arms and legs. He saw, too, that except for their wingsthe pair bore a strong resemblance to human beings, thoughfashioned in a most grotesque mold.

As he sat gazing at them, one of the two awoke, separated hiswings to release his arms that had been folded across his breast,placed his hands upon the floor, dropped his feet and stood erect.For a moment he stretched his great wings slowly, solemnlyblinking his large round eyes. Then his gaze fell upon Bradley.The thin lips drew back tightly against yellow teeth in a grimacethat was nothing but hideous. It could not have been termed asmile, and what emotion it registered the Englishman was at aloss to guess. No expression whatever altered the steady gazeof those large, round eyes; there was no color upon the pasty,sunken cheeks. A death's head grimaced as though a man longdead raised his parchment-covered skull from an old grave.

The creature stood about the height of an average man butappeared much taller from the fact that the joints of his long

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wings rose fully a foot above his hairless head. The bare armswere long and sinewy, ending in strong, bony hands with clawlikefingers--almost talonlike in their suggestiveness. The whiterobe was separated in front, revealing skinny legs and thefurther fact that the thing wore but the single garment, whichwas of fine, woven cloth. From crown to sole the portions ofthe body exposed were entirely hairless, and as he noted this,Bradley also noted for the first time the cause of much of theseeming expressionlessness of the creature's countenance--it hadneither eye-brows or lashes. The ears were small and rested flatagainst the skull, which was noticeably round, though the facewas quite flat. The creature had small feet, beautifully archedand plump, but so out of keeping with every other physicalattribute it possessed as to appear ridiculous.

After eyeing Bradley for a moment the thing approached him."Where from?" it asked.

"England," replied Bradley, as briefly.

"Where is England and what?" pursued the questioner.

"It is a country far from here," answered the Englishman.

"Are your people cor-sva-jo or cos-ata-lu?"

"I do not understand you," said Bradley; "and now suppose youanswer a few questions. Who are you? What country is this?Why did you bring me here?"

Again the sepulchral grimace. "We are Wieroos--Luata is our father.Caspak is ours. This, our country, is called Oo-oh. We broughtyou here for (literally) Him Who Speaks for Luata to gaze uponand question. He would know from whence you came and why; butprincipally if you be cos-ata-lu."

"And if I am not cos--whatever you call the bloomin' beast--what of it?"

The Wieroo raised his wings in a very human shrug and waved hisbony claws toward the human skulls supporting the ceiling.His gesture was eloquent; but he embellished it by remarking,"And possibly if you are."

"I'm hungry," snapped Bradley.

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The Wieroo motioned him to one of the doors which he threw open,permitting Bradley to pass out onto another roof on a level lowerthan that upon which they had landed earlier in the morning.By daylight the city appeared even more remarkable than in themoonlight, though less weird and unreal. The houses of allshapes and sizes were piled about as a child might pile blocks ofvarious forms and colors. He saw now that there were what mightbe called streets or alleys, but they ran in baffling turns andtwists, nor ever reached a destination, always ending in a deadwall where some Wieroo had built a house across them.

Upon each house was a slender column supporting a human skull.Sometimes the columns were at one corner of the roof, sometimesat another, or again they rose from the center or near thecenter, and the columns were of varying heights, from that ofa man to those which rose twenty feet above their roofs.The skulls were, as a rule, painted--blue or white, or incombinations of both colors. The most effective were paintedblue with the teeth white and the eye-sockets rimmed with white.

There were other skulls--thousands of them--tens, hundredsof thousands. They rimmed the eaves of every house, they wereset in the plaster of the outer walls and at no great distancefrom where Bradley stood rose a round tower built entirely ofhuman skulls. And the city extended in every direction as faras the Englishman could see.

All about him Wieroos were moving across the roofs or wingingthrough the air. The sad sound of their flapping wings rose andfell like a solemn dirge. Most of them were appareled all inwhite, like his captors; but others had markings of red or blueor yellow slashed across the front of their robes.

His guide pointed toward a doorway in an alley below them."Go there and eat," he commanded, "and then come back.You cannot escape. If any question you, say that you belongto Fosh-bal-soj. There is the way." And this time he pointedto the top of a ladder which protruded above the eaves of theroof near-by. Then he turned and reentered the house.

Bradley looked about him. No, he could not escape--thatseemed evident. The city appeared interminable, and beyond thecity, if not a savage wilderness filled with wild beasts, therewas the broad inland sea infested with horrid monsters. No wonder

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his captor felt safe in turning him loose in Oo-oh--he wondered ifthat was the name of the country or the city and if there wereother cities like this upon the island.

Slowly he descended the ladder to the seemingly deserted alleywhich was paved with what appeared to be large, round cobblestones.He looked again at the smooth, worn pavement, and a rueful grincrossed his features--the alley was paved with skulls. "The Cityof Human Skulls," mused Bradley. "They must have been collectin''em since Adam," he thought, and then he crossed and entered thebuilding through the doorway that had been pointed out to him.

Inside he found a large room in which were many Wieroos seatedbefore pedestals the tops of which were hollowed out so thatthey resembled the ordinary bird drinking- and bathing-fonts socommonly seen on suburban lawns. A seat protruded from each ofthe four sides of the pedestals--just a flat board with a supportrunning from its outer end diagonally to the base of the pedestal.

As Bradley entered, some of the Wieroos espied him, and a dismalwail arose. Whether it was a greeting or a threat, Bradley didnot know. Suddenly from a dark alcove another Wieroo rushed outtoward him. "Who are you?" he cried. "What do you want?"

"Fosh-bal-soj sent me here to eat," replied Bradley.

"Do you belong to Fosh-bal-soj?" asked the other.

"That appears to be what he thinks," answered the Englishman.

"Are you cos-ata-lu?" demanded the Wieroo.

"Give me something to eat or I'll be all of that," replied Bradley.

The Wieroo looked puzzled. "Sit here, jaal-lu," he snapped,and Bradley sat down unconscious of the fact that he had beeninsulted by being called a hyena-man, an appellation of contemptin Caspak.

The Wieroo had seated him at a pedestal by himself, and as he satwaiting for what was next to transpire, he looked about him atthe Wieroo in his immediate vicinity. He saw that in each fontwas a quantity of food, and that each Wieroo was armed with awooden skewer, sharpened at one end; with which they carriedsolid portions of food to their mouths. At the other end of the

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skewer was fastened a small clam-shell. This was used to scoopup the smaller and softer portions of the repast into which allfour of the occupants of each table dipped impartially. The Wierooleaned far over their food, scooping it up rapidly and with muchnoise, and so great was their haste that a part of each mouthfulalways fell back into the common dish; and when they choked, byreason of the rapidity with which they attempted to bolt theirfood, they often lost it all. Bradley was glad that he had apedestal all to himself.

Soon the keeper of the place returned with a wooden bowl filledwith food. This he dumped into Bradley's "trough," as he alreadythought of it. The Englishman was glad that he could not seeinto the dark alcove or know what were all the ingredients thatconstituted the mess before him, for he was very hungry.

After the first mouthful he cared even less to investigate theantecedents of the dish, for he found it peculiarly palatable.It seemed to consist of a combination of meat, fruits,vegetables, small fish and other undistinguishable articles offood all seasoned to produce a gastronomic effect that was atonce baffling and delicious.

When he had finished, his trough was empty, and then he commencedto wonder who was to settle for his meal. As he waited for theproprietor to return, he fell to examining the dish from which hehad eaten and the pedestal upon which it rested. The font was ofstone worn smooth by long-continued use, the four outer edgeshollowed and polished by the contact of the countless Wieroobodies that had leaned against them for how long a period of timeBradley could not even guess. Everything about the place carriedthe impression of hoary age. The carved pedestals were blackwith use, the wooden seats were worn hollow, the floor of stoneslabs was polished by the contact of possibly millions of nakedfeet and worn away in the aisles between the pedestals so thatthe latter rested upon little mounds of stone several inchesabove the general level of the floor.

Finally, seeing that no one came to collect, Bradley arose andstarted for the doorway. He had covered half the distance whenhe heard the voice of mine host calling to him: "Come back,jaal-lu," screamed the Wieroo; and Bradley did as he was bid.As he approached the creature which stood now behind a large,flat-topped pedestal beside the alcove, he saw lying upon thesmooth surface something that almost elicited a gasp of

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astonishment from him--a simple, common thing it was, or wouldhave been almost anywhere in the world but Caspak--a square bitof paper!

And on it, in a fine hand, written compactly, were many strangehieroglyphics! These remarkable creatures, then, had a written aswell as a spoken language and besides the art of weaving clothpossessed that of paper-making. Could it be that such grotesquebeings represented the high culture of the human race within theboundaries of Caspak? Had natural selection produced during thecountless ages of Caspakian life a winged monstrosity thatrepresented the earthly pinnacle of man's evolution?

Bradley had noted something of the obvious indications of agradual evolution from ape to spearman as exemplified by theseveral overlapping races of Alalus, club-men and hatchet-menthat formed the connecting links between the two extremes withwhich he, had come in contact. He had heard of the Krolus andthe Galus--reputed to be still higher in the plane of evolution--and now he had indisputable evidence of a race possessingrefinements of civilization eons in advance of the spear-men.The conjectures awakened by even a momentary consideration of thepossibilities involved became at once as wildly bizarre as theinsane imagings of a drug addict.

As these thoughts flashed through his mind, the Wieroo held outa pen of bone fixed to a wooden holder and at the same time madea sign that Bradley was to write upon the paper. It wasdifficult to judge from the expressionless features of the Wieroowhat was passing in the creature's mind, but Bradley could notbut feel that the thing cast a supercilious glance upon him asmuch as to say, "Of course you do not know how to write, youpoor, low creature; but you can make your mark."

Bradley seized the pen and in a clear, bold hand wrote: "JohnBradley, England." The Wieroo showed evidences of consternationas it seized the piece of paper and examined the writing withevery mark of incredulity and surprise. Of course it could makenothing of the strange characters; but it evidently accepted themas proof that Bradley possessed knowledge of a written languageof his own, for following the Englishman's entry it made a fewcharacters of its own.

"You will come here again just before Lua hides his face behindthe great cliff," announced the creature, "unless before that you

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are summoned by Him Who Speaks for Luata, in which case you willnot have to eat any more."

"Reassuring cuss," thought Bradley as he turned and leftthe building.

Outside were several Wieroos that had been eating at thepedestals within. They immediately surrounded him, asking allsorts of questions, plucking at his garments, his ammunition-beltand his pistol. Their demeanor was entirely different from whatit had been within the eating-place and Bradley was to learn thata house of food was sanctuary for him, since the stern laws ofthe Wieroos forbade altercations within such walls. Now theywere rough and threatening, as with wings half spread theyhovered about him in menacing attitudes, barring his way to theladder leading to the roof from whence he had descended; but theEnglishman was not one to brook interference for long. He attemptedat first to push his way past them, and then when one seized hisarm and jerked him roughly back, Bradley swung upon the creatureand with a heavy blow to the jaw felled it.

Instantly pandemonium reigned. Loud wails arose, great wingsopened and closed with a loud, beating noise and many clawlikehands reached forth to clutch him. Bradley struck to rightand left. He dared not use his pistol for fear that once theydiscovered its power he would be overcome by weight of numbersand relieved of possession of what he considered his trump card,to be reserved until the last moment that it might be used to aidin his escape, for already the Englishman was planning, thoughalmost hopelessly, such an attempt.

A few blows convinced Bradley that the Wieroos were arrantcowards and that they bore no weapons, for after two or three hadfallen beneath his fists the others formed a circle about him,but at a safe distance and contented themselves with threateningand blustering, while those whom he had felled lay upon thepavement without trying to arise, the while they moaned andwailed in lugubrious chorus.

Again Bradley strode toward the ladder, and this time the circleparted before him; but no sooner had he ascended a few rungs thanhe was seized by one foot and an effort made to drag him down.With a quick backward glance the Englishman, clinging firmly tothe ladder with both hands, drew up his free foot and with allthe strength of a powerful leg, planted a heavy shoe squarely in

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the flat face of the Wieroo that held him. Shrieking horribly,the creature clapped both hands to its face and sank to theground while Bradley clambered quickly the remaining distance tothe roof, though no sooner did he reach the top of the ladderthan a great flapping of wings beneath him warned him that theWieroos were rising after him. A moment later they swarmed abouthis head as he ran for the apartment in which he had spent theearly hours of the morning after his arrival.

It was but a short distance from the top of the ladder to thedoorway, and Bradley had almost reached his goal when the doorflew open and Fosh-bal-soj stepped out. Immediately the pursuingWieroos demanded punishment of the jaal-lu who had sogrievously maltreated them. Fosh-bal-soj listened to theircomplaints and then with a sudden sweep of his right hand seizedBradley by the scruff of the neck and hurled him sprawlingthrough the doorway upon the floor of the chamber.

So sudden was the assault and so surprising the strength of theWieroo that the Englishman was taken completely off his guard.When he arose, the door was closed, and Fosh-bal-soj was standingover him, his hideous face contorted into an expression of rageand hatred.

"Hyena, snake, lizard!" he screamed. "You would dare lay yourlow, vile, profaning hands upon even the lowliest of the Wieroos--the sacred chosen of Luata!"

Bradley was mad, and so he spoke in a very low, calm voice whilea half-smile played across his lips but his cold, gray eyeswere unsmiling.

"What you did to me just now," he said, "--I am going to killyou for that," and even as he spoke, he launched himself at thethroat of Fosh-bal-soj. The other Wieroo that had been asleepwhen Bradley left the chamber had departed, and the two were alone.Fosh-bal-soj displayed little of the cowardice of those that hadattacked Bradley in the alleyway, but that may have been becausehe had so slight opportunity, for Bradley had him by the throatbefore he could utter a cry and with his right hand struck himheavily and repeatedly upon his face and over his heart--ugly,smashing, short-arm jabs of the sort that take the fight out ofa man in quick time.

But Fosh-bal-soj was of no mind to die passively. He clawed and

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struck at Bradley while with his great wings he attempted toshield himself from the merciless rain of blows, at the same timesearching for a hold upon his antagonist's throat. Presently hesucceeded in tripping the Englishman, and together the two fellheavily to the floor, Bradley underneath, and at the same instantthe Wieroo fastened his long talons about the other's windpipe.

Fosh-bal-soj was possessed of enormous strength and he wasfighting for his life. The Englishman soon realized that thebattle was going against him. Already his lungs were poundingpainfully for air as he reached for his pistol. It was withdifficulty that he drew it from its holster, and even then, withdeath staring him in the face, he thought of his precious ammunition."Can't waste it," he thought; and slipping his fingers to thebarrel he raised the weapon and struck Fosh-bal-soj a terrificblow between the eyes. Instantly the clawlike fingers releasedtheir hold, and the creature sank limply to the floor besideBradley, who lay for several minutes gasping painfully in aneffort to regain his breath.

When he was able, he rose, and leaned close over the Wieroo,lying silent and motionless, his wings dropping limply and hisgreat, round eyes staring blankly toward the ceiling. A briefexamination convinced Bradley that the thing was dead, and withthe conviction came an overwhelming sense of the dangers whichmust now confront him; but how was he to escape?

His first thought was to find some means for concealing theevidence of his deed and then to make a bold effort to escape.Stepping to the second door he pushed it gently open and peeredin upon what seemed to be a store room. In it was a litter ofcloth such as the Wieroos' robes were fashioned from, a numberof chests painted blue and white, with white hieroglyphicspainted in bold strokes upon the blue and blue hieroglyphics uponthe white. In one corner was a pile of human skulls reachingalmost to the ceiling and in another a stack of dried Wieroo wings.The chamber was as irregularly shaped as the other and had but asingle window and a second door at the further end, but waswithout the exit through the roof and, most important of all,there was no creature of any sort in it.

As quickly as possible Bradley dragged the dead Wieroo throughthe doorway and closed the door; then he looked about for a placeto conceal the corpse. One of the chests was large enough tohold the body if the knees were bent well up, and with this idea

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in view Bradley approached the chest to open it. The lid wasmade in two pieces, each being hinged at an opposite end of thechest and joining nicely where they met in the center of thechest, making a snug, well-fitting joint. There was no lock.Bradley raised one half the cover and looked in. With a smothered"By Jove!" he bent closer to examine the contents--the chestwas about half filled with an assortment of golden trinkets.There were what appeared to be bracelets, anklets and broochesof virgin gold.

Realizing that there was no room in the chest for the body of theWieroo, Bradley turned to seek another means of concealing theevidence of his crime. There was a space between the chests andthe wall, and into this he forced the corpse, piling thediscarded robes upon it until it was entirely hidden from sight;but now how was he to make good his escape in the bright glare ofthat early Spring day?

He walked to the door at the far end of the apartment andcautiously opened it an inch. Before him and about two feet awaywas the blank wall of another building. Bradley opened the doora little farther and looked in both directions. There was no onein sight to the left over a considerable expanse of roof-top, andto the right another building shut off his line of vision atabout twenty feet. Slipping out, he turned to the right and ina few steps found a narrow passageway between two buildings.Turning into this he passed about half its length when he saw aWieroo appear at the opposite end and halt. The creature was notlooking down the passageway; but at any moment it might turn itseyes toward him, when he would be immediately discovered.

To Bradley's left was a triangular niche in the wall of one ofthe houses and into this he dodged, thus concealing himself fromthe sight of the Wieroo. Beside him was a door painted a vividyellow and constructed after the same fashion as the other Wieroodoors he had seen, being made up of countless narrow strips ofwood from four to six inches in length laid on in patches ofabout the same width, the strips in adjacent patches neverrunning in the same direction. The result bore some resemblanceto a crazy patchwork quilt, which was heightened when, as in oneof the doors he had seen, contiguous patches were painteddifferent colors. The strips appeared to have been boundtogether and to the underlying framework of the door with gut orfiber and also glued, after which a thick coating of paint hadbeen applied. One edge of the door was formed of a straight,

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round pole about two inches in diameter that protruded at top andbottom, the projections setting in round holes in both lintel andsill forming the axis upon which the door swung. An eccentricdisk upon the inside face of the door engaged a slot in the framewhen it was desired to secure the door against intruders.

As Bradley stood flattened against the wall waiting for theWieroo to move on, he heard the creature's wings brushing againstthe sides of the buildings as it made its way down the narrowpassage in his direction. As the yellow door offered the onlymeans of escape without detection, the Englishman decided to riskwhatever might lie beyond it, and so, boldly pushing it in, hecrossed the threshold and entered a small apartment.

As he did so, he heard a muffled ejaculation of surprise, andturning his eyes in the direction from whence the sound had come,he beheld a wide-eyed girl standing flattened against theopposite wall, an expression of incredulity upon her face. At aglance he saw that she was of no race of humans that he had comein contact with since his arrival upon Caprona--there was notrace about her form or features of any relationship to those loworders of men, nor was she appareled as they--or, rather, she didnot entirely lack apparel as did most of them.

A soft hide fell from her left shoulder to just below her lefthip on one side and almost to her right knee on the other, aloose girdle was about her waist, and golden ornaments such as hehad seen in the blue-and-white chest encircled her arms and legs,while a golden fillet with a triangular diadem bound her heavyhair above her brows. Her skin was white as from long confinementwithin doors; but it was clear and fine. Her figure, but partiallyconcealed by the soft deerskin, was all curves of symmetry andyouthful grace, while her features might easily have been the envyof the most feted of Continental beauties.

If the girl was surprised by the sudden appearance of Bradley,the latter was absolutely astounded to discover so wondrousa creature among the hideous inhabitants of the City ofHuman Skulls. For a moment the two looked at one another inunconcealed consternation, and then Bradley spoke, using tothe best of his poor ability, the common tongue of Caspak.

"Who are you," he asked, "and from where do you come? Do not tellme that you are a Wieroo."

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"No," she replied, "I am no Wieroo." And she shuddered slightly asshe pronounced the word. "I am a Galu; but who and what are you?I am sure that you are no Galu, from your garments; but you arelike the Galus in other respects. I know that you are not ofthis frightful city, for I have been here for almost ten moons,and never have I seen a male Galu brought hither before, nor arethere such as you and I, other than prisoners in the land ofOo-oh, and these are all females. Are you a prisoner, then?"

He told her briefly who and what he was, though he doubted if sheunderstood, and from her he learned that she had been a prisonerthere for many months; but for what purpose he did not thenlearn, as in the midst of their conversation the yellow doorswung open and a Wieroo with a robe slashed with yellow entered.

At sight of Bradley the creature became furious. "Whence camethis reptile?" it demanded of the girl. "How long has it beenhere with you?"

"It came through the doorway just ahead of you," Bradley answeredfor the girl.

The Wieroo looked relieved. "It is well for the girl thatthis is so," it said, "for now only you will have to die."And stepping to the door the creature raised its voice inone of those uncanny, depressing wails.

The Englishman looked toward the girl. "Shall I kill it?" heasked, half drawing his pistol. "What is best to do?--I do notwish to endanger you."

The Wieroo backed toward the door. "Defiler!" it screamed."You dare to threaten one of the sacred chosen of Luata!"

"Do not kill him," cried the girl, "for then there could be nohope for you. That you are here, alive, shows that they may notintend to kill you at all, and so there is a chance for you ifyou do not anger them; but touch him in violence and yourbleached skull will top the loftiest pedestal of Oo-oh."

"And what of you?" asked Bradley.

"I am already doomed," replied the girl; "I am cos-ata-lo."

"Cos-ata-lo! cos-ata-lu!" What did these phrases mean that

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they were so oft repeated by the denizens of Oo-oh? Lu andlo, Bradley knew to mean man and woman; ata; wasemployed variously to indicate life, eggs, young, reproductionand kindred subject; cos was a negative; but in combinationthey were meaningless to the European.

"Do you mean they will kill you?" asked Bradley.

"I but wish that they would," replied the girl. "My fate is tobe worse than death--in just a few nights more, with the comingof the new moon."

"Poor she-snake!" snapped the Wieroo. "You are to become sacredabove all other shes. He Who Speaks for Luata has chosen youfor himself. Today you go to his temple--"the Wieroo used aphrase meaning literally High Place--"where you will receivethe sacred commands."

The girl shuddered and cast a sorrowful glance toward Bradley."Ah," she sighed, "if I could but see my beloved country once again!"

The man stepped suddenly close to her side before the Wieroocould interpose and in a low voice asked her if there was noway by which he might encompass her escape. She shook herhead sorrowfully. "Even if we escaped the city," she replied,"there is the big water between the island of Oo-oh and theGalu shore."

"And what is beyond the city, if we could leave it?" pursued Bradley.

"I may only guess from what I have heard since I was broughthere," she answered; "but by reports and chance remarks I take itto be a beautiful land in which there are but few wild beasts andno men, for only the Wieroos live upon this island and they dwellalways in cities of which there are three, this being the largest.The others are at the far end of the island, which is about threemarches from end to end and at its widest point about one march."

From his own experience and from what the natives on the mainlandhad told him, Bradley knew that ten miles was a good day's marchin Caspak, owing to the fact that at most points it was atrackless wilderness and at all times travelers were beset byhideous beasts and reptiles that greatly impeded rapid progress.

The two had spoken rapidly but were now interrupted by the advent

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through the opening in the roof of several Wieroos who had comein answer to the alarm it of the yellow slashing had uttered.

"This jaal-lu," cried the offended one, "has threatened me.Take its hatchet from it and make it fast where it can do noharm until He Who Speaks for Luata has said what shall be donewith it. It is one of those strange creatures that Fosh-bal-sojdiscovered first above the Band-lu country and followed back towardthe beginning. He Who Speaks for Luata sent Fosh-bal-soj to fetchhim one of the creatures, and here it is. It is hoped that it maybe from another world and hold the secret of the cos-ata-lus."

The Wieroos approached boldly to take Bradley's "hatchet" fromhim, their leader having indicated the pistol hanging in itsholster at the Englishman's hip, but the first one went reelingbackward against his fellows from the blow to the chin whichBradley followed up with a rush and the intention to clean up theroom in record time; but he had reckoned without the opening inthe roof. Two were down and a great wailing and moaning wasarising when reinforcements appeared from above. Bradley did notsee them; but the girl did, and though she cried out a warning,it came too late for him to avoid a large Wieroo who divedheadforemost for him, striking him between the shoulders andbearing him to the floor. Instantly a dozen more were piling ontop of him. His pistol was wrenched from its holster and he wassecurely pinioned down by the weight of numbers.

At a word from the Wieroo of the yellow slashing who evidentlywas a person of authority, one left and presently returned withfiber ropes with which Bradley was tightly bound.

"Now bear him to the Blue Place of Seven Skulls," directed thechief Wieroo, "and one take the word of all that has passed toHim Who Speaks for Luata."

Each of the creatures raised a hand, the back against its face,as though in salute. One seized Bradley and carried him throughthe yellow doorway to the roof from whence it rose upon itswide-spread wings and flapped off across the roof-tops of Oo-ohwith its heavy burden clutched in its long talons.

Below him Bradley could see the city stretching away to adistance on every hand. It was not as large as he had imagined,though he judged that it was at least three miles square.The houses were piled in indescribable heaps, sometimes to a

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height of a hundred feet. The streets and alleys were shortand crooked and there were many areas where buildings had beenwedged in so closely that no light could possibly reach thelowest tiers, the entire surface of the ground being packedsolidly with them.

The colors were varied and startling, the architecture amazing.Many roofs were cup or saucer-shaped with a small hole in thecenter of each, as though they had been constructed to catchrain-water and conduct it to a reservoir beneath; but nearly allthe others had the large opening in the top that Bradley had seenused by these flying men in lieu of doorways. At all levels werethe myriad poles surmounted by grinning skulls; but the two mostprominent features of the city were the round tower of humanskulls that Bradley had noted earlier in the day and another andmuch larger edifice near the center of the city. As theyapproached it, Bradley saw that it was a huge building rising ahundred feet in height from the ground and that it stood alone inthe center of what might have been called a plaza in some otherpart of the world. Its various parts, however, were set togetherwith the same strange irregularity that marked the architectureof the city as a whole; and it was capped by an enormoussaucer-shaped roof which projected far beyond the eaves, havingthe appearance of a colossal Chinese coolie hat, inverted.

The Wieroo bearing Bradley passed over one corner of the openspace about the large building, revealing to the Englishman grassand trees and running water beneath. They passed the buildingand about five hundred yards beyond the creature alighted on theroof of a square, blue building surmounted by seven poles bearingseven skulls. This then, thought Bradley, is the Blue Place ofSeven Skulls.

Over the opening in the roof was a grated covering, and this theWieroo removed. The thing then tied a piece of fiber rope to oneof Bradley's ankles and rolled him over the edge of the opening.All was dark below and for an instant the Englishman came as nearto experiencing real terror as he had ever come in his life before.As he rolled off into the black abyss he felt the rope tightenabout his ankle and an instant later he was stopped with a suddenjerk to swing pendulumlike, head downward. Then the creaturelowered away until Bradley's head came in sudden and painfulcontact with the floor below, after which the Wieroo let looseof the rope entirely and the Englishman's body crashed to thewooden planking. He felt the free end of the rope dropped

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upon him and heard the grating being slid into place above him.

Chapter 3

Half-stunned, Bradley lay for a minute as he had fallen and thenslowly and painfully wriggled into a less uncomfortable position.He could see nothing of his surroundings in the gloom about himuntil after a few minutes his eyes became accustomed to the darkinterior when he rolled them from side to side in survey of his prison.

He discovered himself to be in a bare room which was windowless,nor could he see any other opening than that through which he hadbeen lowered. In one corner was a huddled mass that might havebeen almost anything from a bundle of rags to a dead body.

Almost immediately after he had taken his bearings Bradleycommenced working with his bonds. He was a man of powerfulphysique, and as from the first he had been imbued with a beliefthat the fiber ropes were too weak to hold him, he worked onwith a firm conviction that sooner or later they would part tohis strainings. After a matter of five minutes he was positivethat the strands about his wrists were beginning to give; but hewas compelled to rest then from exhaustion.

As he lay, his eyes rested upon the bundle in the corner, andpresently he could have sworn that the thing moved. With eyesstraining through the gloom the man lay watching the grim andsinister thing in the corner. Perhaps his overwrought nerveswere playing a sorry joke upon him. He thought of this and alsothat his condition of utter helplessness might still further havestimulated his imagination. He closed his eyes and sought torelax his muscles and his nerves; but when he looked again, heknew that he had not been mistaken--the thing had moved; now itlay in a slightly altered form and farther from the wall. It wasnearer him.

With renewed strength Bradley strained at his bonds, hisfascinated gaze still glued upon the shapeless bundle. No longerwas there any doubt that it moved--he saw it rise in the centerseveral inches and then creep closer to him. It sank and aroseagain--a headless, hideous, monstrous thing of menace. Its verysilence rendered it the more terrible.

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Bradley was a brave man; ordinarily his nerves were of steel; butto be at the mercy of some unknown and nameless horror, to beunable to defend himself--it was these things that almostunstrung him, for at best he was only human. To stand in theopen, even with the odds all against him; to be able to use hisfists, to put up some sort of defense, to inflict punishment uponhis adversary--then he could face death with a smile. It was notdeath that he feared now--it was that horror of the unknown thatis part of the fiber of every son of woman.

Closer and closer came the shapeless mass. Bradley laymotionless and listened. What was that he heard! Breathing?He could not be mistaken--and then from out of the bundle of ragsissued a hollow groan. Bradley felt his hair rise upon his head.He struggled with the slowly parting strands that held him.The thing beside him rose up higher than before and the Englishmancould have sworn that he saw a single eye peering at him fromamong the tumbled cloth. For a moment the bundle remainedmotionless--only the sound of breathing issued from it, thenthere broke from it a maniacal laugh.

Cold sweat stood upon Bradley's brow as he tugged for liberation.He saw the rags rise higher and higher above him until at lastthey tumbled upon the floor from the body of a naked man--a thin,a bony, a hideous caricature of man, that mouthed and mummed and,wabbling upon its weak and shaking legs, crumpled to the flooragain, still laughing--laughing horribly.

It crawled toward Bradley. "Food! Food!" it screamed."There is a way out! There is a way out!"

Dragging itself to his side the creature slumped upon theEnglishman's breast. "Food!" it shrilled as with its bonyfingers and its teeth, it sought the man's bare throat.

"Food! There is a way out!" Bradley felt teeth upon his jugular.He turned and twisted, shaking himself free for an instant; butonce more with hideous persistence the thing fastened itselfupon him. The weak jaws were unable to send the dull teeth throughthe victim's flesh; but Bradley felt it pawing, pawing, pawing,like a monstrous rat, seeking his life's blood.

The skinny arms now embraced his neck, holding the teeth to histhroat against all his efforts to dislodge the thing. Weak as it

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was it had strength enough for this in its mad efforts to eat.Mumbling as it worked, it repeated again and again, "Food! Food!There is a way out!" until Bradley thought those two expressionsalone would drive him mad.

And all but mad he was as with a final effort backed by almostmaniacal strength he tore his wrists from the confining bonds andgrasping the repulsive thing upon his breast hurled it halfwayacross the room. Panting like a spent hound Bradley worked atthe thongs about his ankles while the maniac lay quivering andmumbling where it had fallen. Presently the Englishman leaped tohis feet--freer than he had ever before felt in all his life,though he was still hopelessly a prisoner in the Blue Place ofSeven Skulls.

With his back against the wall for support, so weak the reactionleft him, Bradley stood watching the creature upon the floor.He saw it move and slowly raise itself to its hands and knees,where it swayed to and fro as its eyes roved about in search ofhim; and when at last they found him, there broke from the drawnlips the mumbled words: "Food! Food! There is a way out!"The pitiful supplication in the tones touched the Englishman's heart.He knew that this could be no Wieroo, but possibly once a man likehimself who had been cast into this pit of solitary confinementwith this hideous result that might in time be his fate, also.

And then, too, there was the suggestion of hope held out by theconstant reiteration of the phrase, "There is a way out."Was there a way out? What did this poor thing know?

"Who are you and how long have you been here?" Bradleysuddenly demanded.

For a moment the man upon the floor made no response, thenmumblingly came the words: "Food! Food!"

"Stop!" commanded the Englishman--the injunction might have beenbarked from the muzzle of a pistol. It brought the man to asitting posture, his hands off the ground. He stopped swaying toand fro and appeared to be startled into an attempt to master hisfaculties of concentration and thought.

Bradley repeated his questions sharply.

"I am An-Tak, the Galu," replied the man. "Luata alone knows how

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long I have been here--maybe ten moons, maybe ten moons threetimes"--it was the Caspakian equivalent of thirty. "I was youngand strong when they brought me here. Now I am old and very weak.I am cos-ata-lu--that is why they have not killed me.If I tell them the secret of becoming cos-ata-lu they willtake me out; but how can I tell them that which Luata alone knows?

"What is cos-ata-lu?" demanded Bradley.

"Food! Food! There is a way out!" mumbled the Galu.

Bradley strode across the floor, seized the man by his shouldersand shook him.

"Tell me," he cried, "what is cos-ata-lu?"

"Food!" whimpered An-Tak.

Bradley bethought himself. His haversack had not been takenfrom him. In it besides his razor and knife were odds and endsof equipment and a small quantity of dried meat. He tossed a smallstrip of the latter to the starving Galu. An-Tak seized upon itand devoured it ravenously. It instilled new life in the man.

"What is cos-ata-lu?" insisted Bradley again.

An-Tak tried to explain. His narrative was often broken bylapses of concentration during which he reverted to his plaintivemumbling for food and recurrence to the statement that there wasa way out; but by firmness and patience the Englishman drew outpiece-meal a more or less lucid exposition of the remarkablescheme of evolution that rules in Caspak. In it he foundexplanations of the hitherto inexplicable. He discovered why hehad seen no babes or children among the Caspakian tribes withwhich he had come in contact; why each more northerly tribeevinced a higher state of development than those south of them;why each tribe included individuals ranging in physical andmental characteristics from the highest of the next lower race tothe lowest of the next higher, and why the women of each tribeimmersed themselves morning for an hour or more in the warm poolsnear which the habitations of their people always were located;and, too, he discovered why those pools were almost immune fromthe attacks of carnivorous animals and reptiles.

He learned that all but those who were cos-ata-lu came up

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cor-sva-jo, or from the beginning. The egg from whichthey first developed into tadpole form was deposited, withmillions of others, in one of the warm pools and with it apoisonous serum that the carnivora instinctively shunned.Down the warm stream from the pool floated the countless billionsof eggs and tadpoles, developing as they drifted slowly towardthe sea. Some became tadpoles in the pool, some in the sluggishstream and some not until they reached the great inland sea.In the next stage they became fishes or reptiles, An-Tak was notpositive which, and in this form, always developing, they swamfar to the south, where, amid the rank and teeming jungles, someof them evolved into amphibians. Always there were those whosedevelopment stopped at the first stage, others whose developmentceased when they became reptiles, while by far the greaterproportion formed the food supply of the ravenous creatures ofthe deep.

Few indeed were those that eventually developed into baboons andthen apes, which was considered by Caspakians the real beginningof evolution. From the egg, then, the individual developedslowly into a higher form, just as the frog's egg develops throughvarious stages from a fish with gills to a frog with lungs.With that thought in mind Bradley discovered that it was notdifficult to believe in the possibility of such a scheme--there was nothing new in it.

From the ape the individual, if it survived, slowly developedinto the lowest order of man--the Alu--and then by degrees toBo-lu, Sto-lu, Band-lu, Kro-lu and finally Galu. And in eachstage countless millions of other eggs were deposited in the warmpools of the various races and floated down to the great sea togo through a similar process of evolution outside the womb asdevelops our own young within; but in Caspak the scheme is muchmore inclusive, for it combines not only individual developmentbut the evolution of species and genera. If an egg survives itgoes through all the stages of development that man has passedthrough during the unthinkable eons since life first moved uponthe earth's face.

The final stage--that which the Galus have almost attained andfor which all hope--is cos-ata-lu, which literally, meansno-egg-man, or one who is born directly as are the young of theouter world of mammals. Some of the Galus produce cos-ata-luand cos-ata-lo both; the Weiroos only cos-ata-lu--inother words all Wieroos are born male, and so they prey upon the

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Galus for their women and sometimes capture and torture the Galumen who are cos-ata-lu in an endeavor to learn the secretwhich they believe will give them unlimited power over all otherdenizens of Caspak.

No Wieroos come up from the beginning--all are born of the Wieroofathers and Galu mothers who are cos-ata-lo, and there arevery few of the latter owing to the long and precarious stagesof development. Seven generations of the same ancestor must comeup from the beginning before a cos-ata-lu child may be born;and when one considers the frightful dangers that surround thevital spark from the moment it leaves the warm pool where it hasbeen deposited to float down to the sea amid the voracious creaturesthat swarm the surface and the deeps and the almost equallyunthinkable trials of its effort to survive after it once becomesa land animal and starts northward through the horrors of theCaspakian jungles and forests, it is plainly a wonder that evena single babe has ever been born to a Galu woman.

Seven cycles it requires before the seventh Galu can complete theseventh danger-infested circle since its first Galu ancestorachieved the state of Galu. For ages before, the ancestors ofthis first Galu may have developed from a Band-lu or Bo-lu eggwithout ever once completing the whole circle--that is from aGalu egg, back to a fully developed Galu.

Bradley's head was whirling before he even commenced to grasp thecomplexities of Caspakian evolution; but as the truth slowlyfiltered into his understanding--as gradually it became possiblefor him to visualize the scheme, it appeared simpler. In fact,it seemed even less difficult of comprehension than that withwhich he was familiar.

For several minutes after An-Tak ceased speaking, his voicehaving trailed off weakly into silence, neither spoke again.Then the Galu recommenced his, "Food! Food! There is a way out!"Bradley tossed him another bit of dried meat, waiting patientlyuntil he had eaten it, this time more slowly.

"What do you mean by saying there is a way out?" he asked.

"He who died here just after I came, told me," replied An-Tak."He said there was a way out, that he had discovered it but wastoo weak to use his knowledge. He was trying to tell me how tofind it when he died. Oh, Luata, if he had lived but a moment more!"

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"They do not feed you here?" asked Bradley.

"No, they give me water once a day--that is all."

"But how have you lived, then?"

"The lizards and the rats," replied An-Tak. "The lizards are notso bad; but the rats are foul to taste. However, I must eat themor they would eat me, and they are better than nothing; but oflate they do not come so often, and I have not had a lizard fora long time. I shall eat though," he mumbled. "I shall eat now,for you cannot remain awake forever." He laughed, a cackling, drylaugh. "When you sleep, An-Tak will eat."

It was horrible. Bradley shuddered. For a long time each satin silence. The Englishman could guess why the other made nosound--he awaited the moment that sleep should overcome his victim.In the long silence there was born upon Bradley's ears a faint,monotonous sound as of running water. He listened intently.It seemed to come from far beneath the floor.

"What is that noise?" he asked. "That sounds like water runningthrough a narrow channel."

"It is the river," replied An-Tak. "Why do you not go to sleep?It passes directly beneath the Blue Place of Seven Skulls. It runsthrough the temple grounds, beneath the temple and under the city.When we die, they will cut off our heads and throw our bodies intothe river. At the mouth of the river await many large reptiles.Thus do they feed. The Wieroos do likewise with their own dead,keeping only the skulls and the wings. Come, let us sleep."

"Do the reptiles come up the river into the city?" asked Bradley.

"The water is too cold--they never leave the warm water of thegreat pool," replied An-Tak.

"Let us search for the way out," suggested Bradley.

An-Tak shook his head. "I have searched for it all these moons,"he said. "If I could not find it, how would you?"

Bradley made no reply but commenced a diligent examination of thewalls and floor of the room, pressing over each square foot

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and tapping with his knuckles. About six feet from the floorhe discovered a sleeping-perch near one end of the apartment.He asked An-Tak about it, but the Galu said that no Weiroohad occupied the place since he had been incarcerated there.Again and again Bradley went over the floor and walls as highup as he could reach. Finally he swung himself to the perch,that he might examine at least one end of the room all the wayto the ceiling.

In the center of the wall close to the top, an area about threefeet square gave forth a hollow sound when he rapped upon it.Bradley felt over every square inch of that area with the tips ofhis fingers. Near the top he found a small round hole a triflelarger in diameter than his forefinger, which he immediatelystuck into it. The panel, if such it was, seemed about aninch thick, and beyond it his finger encountered nothing.Bradley crooked his finger upon the opposite side of the paneland pulled toward him, steadily but with considerable force.Suddenly the panel flew inward, nearly precipitating the man tothe floor. It was hinged at the bottom, and when lowered theouter edge rested upon the perch, making a little platformparallel with the floor of the room.

Beyond the opening was an utterly dark void. The Englishmanleaned through it and reached his arm as far as possible into theblackness but touched nothing. Then he fumbled in his haversackfor a match, a few of which remained to him. When he struck it,An-Tak gave a cry of terror. Bradley held the light far into theopening before him and in its flickering rays saw the top of aladder descending into a black abyss below. How far down itextended he could not guess; but that he should soon knowdefinitely he was positive.

"You have found it! You have found the way out!" screamed An-Tak."Oh, Luata! And now I am too weak to go. Take me with you!Take me with you!"

"Shut up!" admonished Bradley. "You will have the whole flock ofbirds around our heads in a minute, and neither of us will escape.Be quiet, and I'll go ahead. If I find a way out, I'll come backand help you, if you'll promise not to try to eat me up again."

"I promise," cried An-Tak. "Oh, Luata! How could you blame me?I am half crazed of hunger and long confinement and the horror ofthe lizards and the rats and the constant waiting for death."

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"I know," said Bradley simply. "I'm sorry for you, old top.Keep a stiff upper lip." And he slipped through the opening,found the ladder with his feet, closed the panel behind him, andstarted downward into the darkness.

Below him rose more and more distinctly the sound of running water.The air felt damp and cool. He could see nothing of hissurroundings and felt nothing but the smooth, worn sides andrungs of the ladder down which he felt his way cautiously lest abroken rung or a misstep should hurl him downward.

As he descended thus slowly, the ladder seemed interminable andthe pit bottomless, yet he realized when at last he reached thebottom that he could not have descended more than fifty feet.The bottom of the ladder rested on a narrow ledge paved with whatfelt like large round stones, but what he knew from experience tobe human skulls. He could not but marvel as to where so manycountless thousands of the things had come from, until he pausedto consider that the infancy of Caspak dated doubtlessly backinto remote ages, far beyond what the outer world considered thebeginning of earthly time. For all these eons the Wieroos mighthave been collecting human skulls from their enemies and theirown dead--enough to have built an entire city of them.

Feeling his way along the narrow ledge, Bradley came presently toa blank wall that stretched out over the water swirling beneathhim, as far as he could reach. Stooping, he groped about withone hand, reaching down toward the surface of the water, anddiscovered that the bottom of the wall arched above the stream.How much space there was between the water and the arch he couldnot tell, nor how deep the former. There was only one way inwhich he might learn these things, and that was to lower himselfinto the stream. For only an instant he hesitated weighinghis chances. Behind him lay almost certainly the horrid fate ofAn-Tak; before him nothing worse than a comparatively painlessdeath by drowning. Holding his haversack above his head with onehand he lowered his feet slowly over the edge of the narrow platform.Almost immediately he felt the swirling of cold water about hisankles, and then with a silent prayer he let himself drop gentlyinto the stream.

Great was Bradley's relief when he found the water no morethan waist deep and beneath his feet a firm, gravel bottom.Feeling his way cautiously he moved downward with the current,

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which was not so strong as he had imagined from the noise ofthe running water.

Beneath the first arch he made his way, following the windingcurvatures of the right-hand wall. After a few yards of progresshis hand came suddenly in contact with a slimy thing clinging tothe wall--a thing that hissed and scuttled out of reach. What itwas, the man could not know; but almost instantly there was asplash in the water just ahead of him and then another.

On he went, passing beneath other arches at varying distances,and always in utter darkness. Unseen denizens of this greatsewer, disturbed by the intruder, splashed into the water aheadof him and wriggled away. Time and again his hand touched themand never for an instant could he be sure that at the next stepsome gruesome thing might not attack him. He had strapped hishaversack about his neck, well above the surface of the water,and in his left hand he carried his knife. Other precautionsthere were none to take.

The monotony of the blind trail was increased by the fact thatfrom the moment he had started from the foot of the ladder he hadcounted his every step. He had promised to return for An-Tak ifit proved humanly possible to do so, and he knew that in theblackness of the tunnel he could locate the foot of the ladder inno other way.

He had taken two hundred and sixty-nine steps--afterward he knewthat he should never forget that number--when something bumpedgently against him from behind. Instantly he wheeled about andwith knife ready to defend himself stretched forth his right handto push away the object that now had lodged against his body.His fingers feeling through the darkness came in contact withsomething cold and clammy--they passed to and fro over the thinguntil Bradley knew that it was the face of a dead man floatingupon the surface of the stream. With an oath he pushed hisgruesome companion out into mid-stream to float on down towardthe great pool and the awaiting scavengers of the deep.

At his four hundred and thirteenth step another corpse bumpedagainst him--how many had passed him without touching he couldnot guess; but suddenly he experienced the sensation of beingsurrounded by dead faces floating along with him, all set inhideous grimaces, their dead eyes glaring at this profaning alienwho dared intrude upon the waters of this river of the dead--a

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horrid escort, pregnant with dire forebodings and with menace.

Though he advanced very slowly, he tried always to take steps ofabout the same length; so that he knew that though considerabletime had elapsed, yet he had really advanced no more than fourhundred yards when ahead he saw a lessening of the pitch-darkness,and at the next turn of the stream his surroundings becamevaguelydiscernible. Above him was an arched roof and on eitherhand walls pierced at intervals by apertures covered withwooden doors. Just ahead of him in the roof of the aqueductwas a round, black hole about thirty inches in diameter.His eyes still rested upon the opening when there shot downwardfrom it to the water below the naked body of a human being whichalmost immediately rose to the surface again and floated off downthe stream. In the dim light Bradley saw that it was a deadWieroo from which the wings and head had been removed. A momentlater another headless body floated past, recalling what An-Takhad told him of the skull-collecting customs of the Wieroo.Bradley wondered how it happened that the first corpse he hadencountered in the stream had not been similarly mutilated.

The farther he advanced now, the lighter it became. The numberof corpses was much smaller than he had imagined, only two morepassing him before, at six hundred steps, or about five hundredyards, from the point he had taken to the stream, he came to theend of the tunnel and looked out upon sunlit water, runningbetween grassy banks.

One of the last corpses to pass him was still clothed in thewhite robe of a Wieroo, blood-stained over the headless neck thatit concealed.

Drawing closer to the opening leading into the bright daylight,Bradley surveyed what lay beyond. A short distance before him alarge building stood in the center of several acres of grass andtree-covered ground, spanning the stream which disappearedthrough an opening in its foundation wall. From the largesaucer-shaped roof and the vivid colorings of the variousheterogeneous parts of the structure he recognized it as thetemple past which he had been borne to the Blue Place ofSeven Skulls.

To and fro flew Wieroos, going to and from the temple.Others passed on foot across the open grounds, assistingthemselves with their great wings, so that they barely skimmed

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the earth. To leave the mouth of the tunnel would have beento court instant discovery and capture; but by what otheravenue he might escape, Bradley could not guess, unless heretraced his steps up the stream and sought egress from theother end of the city. The thought of traversing that darkand horror-ridden tunnel for perhaps miles he could notentertain--there must be some other way. Perhaps after darkhe could steal through the temple grounds and continue ondownstream until he had come beyond the city; and so he stoodand waited until his limbs became almost paralyzed with cold,and he knew that he must find some other plan for escape.

A half-formed decision to risk an attempt to swim under water tothe temple was crystallizing in spite of the fact that any chanceWieroo flying above the stream might easily see him, when againa floating object bumped against him from behind and lodgedacross his back. Turning quickly he saw that the thing was whathe had immediately guessed it to be--a headless and winglessWieroo corpse. With a grunt of disgust he was about to push itfrom him when the white garment enshrouding it suggested a boldplan to his resourceful brain. Grasping the corpse by an arm hetore the garment from it and then let the body float downwardtoward the temple. With great care he draped the robe about him;the bloody blotch that had covered the severed neck he arrangedabout his own head. His haversack he rolled as tightly aspossible and stuffed beneath his coat over his breast. Then hefell gently to the surface of the stream and lying upon his backfloated downward with the current and out into the open sunlight.

Through the weave of the cloth he could distinguish large objects.He saw a Wieroo flap dismally above him; he saw the banks of thestream float slowly past; he heard a sudden wail upon the right-hand shore, and his heart stood still lest his ruse had beendiscovered; but never by a move of a muscle did he betray thataught but a cold lump of clay floated there upon the bosom of thewater, and soon, though it seemed an eternity to him, the directsunlight was blotted out, and he knew that he had entered beneaththe temple.

Quickly he felt for bottom with his feet and as quickly stooderect, snatching the bloody, clammy cloth from his face. On bothsides were blank walls and before him the river turned a sharpcorner and disappeared. Feeling his way cautiously forward heapproached the turn and looked around the corner. To his leftwas a low platform about a foot above the level of the stream,

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and onto this he lost no time in climbing, for he was soaked fromhead to foot, cold and almost exhausted.

As he lay resting on the skull-paved shelf, he saw in the centerof the vault above the river another of those sinister roundholes through which he momentarily expected to see a headlesscorpse shoot downward in its last plunge to a watery grave.A few feet along the platform a closed door broke the blankness ofthe wall. As he lay looking at it and wondering what lay behind,his mind filled with fragments of many wild schemes of escape, itopened and a white robed Wieroo stepped out upon the platform.The creature carried a large wooden basin filled with rubbish.Its eyes were not upon Bradley, who drew himself to a squattingposition and crouched as far back in the corner of the niche inwhich the platform was set as he could force himself. The Wieroostepped to the edge of the platform and dumped the rubbish intothe stream. If it turned away from him as it started to retraceits steps to the doorway, there was a small chance that it mightnot see him; but if it turned toward him there was none at all.Bradley held his breath.

The Wieroo paused a moment, gazing down into the water, then itstraightened up and turned toward the Englishman. Bradley didnot move. The Wieroo stopped and stared intently at him.It approached him questioningly. Still Bradley remained asthough carved of stone. The creature was directly in frontof him. It stopped. There was no chance on earth that it wouldnot discover what he was.

With the quickness of a cat, Bradley sprang to his feet and withall his great strength, backed by his heavy weight, struck theWieroo upon the point of the chin. Without a sound the thingcrumpled to the platform, while Bradley, acting almostinstinctively to the urge of the first law of nature, rolled theinanimate body over the edge into the river.

Then he looked at the open doorway, crossed the platform andpeered within the apartment beyond. What he saw was a largeroom, dimly lighted, and about the side rows of wooden vesselsstacked one upon another. There was no Wieroo in sight, so theEnglishman entered. At the far end of the room was another door,and as he crossed toward it, he glanced into some of the vessels,which he found were filled with dried fruits, vegetables and fish.Without more ado he stuffed his pockets and his haversack full,thinking of the poor creature awaiting his return in the gloom

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of the Place of Seven Skulls.

When night came, he would return and fetch An-Tak this far atleast; but in the meantime it was his intention to reconnoiter inthe hope that he might discover some easier way out of the citythan that offered by the chill, black channel of the ghastlyriver of corpses.

Beyond the farther door stretched a long passageway fromwhich closed doorways led into other parts of the cellars ofthe temple. A few yards from the storeroom a ladder rose fromthe corridor through an aperture in the ceiling. Bradley pausedat the foot of it, debating the wisdom of further investigationagainst a return to the river; but strong within him was thespirit of exploration that has scattered his race to the fourcorners of the earth. What new mysteries lay hidden in thechambers above? The urge to know was strong upon him though hisbetter judgment warned him that the safer course lay in retreat.For a moment he stood thus, running his fingers through his hair;then he cast discretion to the winds and began the ascent.

In conformity with such Wieroo architecture as he had alreadyobserved, the well through which the ladder rose continuallycanted at an angle from the perpendicular. At more or lessregular stages it was pierced by apertures closed by doors, noneof which he could open until he had climbed fully fifty feet fromthe river level. Here he discovered a door already ajar openinginto a large, circular chamber, the walls and floors of whichwere covered with the skins of wild beasts and with rugs of manycolors; but what interested him most was the occupants of theroom--a Wieroo, and a girl of human proportions. She wasstanding with her back against a column which rose from thecenter of the apartment from floor to ceiling--a hollow columnabout forty inches in diameter in which he could see an openingsome thirty inches across. The girl's side was toward Bradley,and her face averted, for she was watching the Wieroo, who wasnow advancing slowly toward her, talking as he came.

Bradley could distinctly hear the words of the creature, who wasurging the girl to accompany him to another Wieroo city. "Come withme," he said, "and you shall have your life; remain here and He WhoSpeaks for Luata will claim you for his own; and when he is donewith you, your skull will bleach at the top of a tall staff whileyour body feeds the reptiles at the mouth of the River of Death.Even though you bring into the world a female Wieroo, your fate

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will be the same if you do not escape him, while with me you shallhave life and food and none shall harm you."

He was quite close to the girl when she replied by striking himin the face with all her strength. "Until I am slain," she cried,"I shall fight against you all." From the throat of the Wierooissued that dismal wail that Bradley had heard so often in thepast--it was like a scream of pain smothered to a groan--and thenthe thing leaped upon the girl, its face working in hideousgrimaces as it clawed and beat at her to force her to the floor.

The Englishman was upon the point of entering to defend her whena door at the opposite side of the chamber opened to admit a hugeWieroo clothed entirely in red. At sight of the two strugglingupon the floor the newcomer raised his voice in a shriek of rage.Instantly the Wieroo who was attacking the girl leaped to hisfeet and faced the other.

"I heard," screamed he who had just entered the room. "I heard,and when He Who Speaks for Lu-ata shall have heard--" He pausedand made a suggestive movement of a finger across his throat.

"He shall not hear," returned the first Wieroo as, with apowerful motion of his great wings, he launched himself upon thered-robed figure. The latter dodged the first charge, drew awicked-looking curved blade from beneath its red robe, spread itswings and dived for its antagonist. Beating their wings, wailingand groaning, the two hideous things sparred for position.The white-robed one being unarmed sought to grasp the other bythe wrist of its knife-hand and by the throat, while the latterhopped around on its dainty white feet, seeking an opening for amortal blow. Once it struck and missed, and then the otherrushed in and clinched, at the same time securing both the holdsit sought. Immediately the two commenced beating at each other'sheads with the joints of their wings, kicking with their soft,puny feet and biting, each at the other's face.

In the meantime the girl moved about the room, keeping out of theway of the duelists, and as she did so, Bradley caught a glimpseof her full face and immediately recognized her as the girl ofthe place of the yellow door. He did not dare intervene nowuntil one of the Wieroo had overcome the other, lest the twoshould turn upon him at once, when the chances were fair that hewould be defeated in so unequal a battle as the curved blade ofthe red Wieroo would render it, and so he waited, watching the

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white-robed figure slowly choking the life from him of the red robe.The protruding tongue and the popping eyes proclaimed that theend was near and a moment later the red robe sank to the floorof the room, the curved blade slipping from nerveless fingers.For an instant longer the victor clung to the throat of hisdefeated antagonist and then he rose, dragging the body afterhim, and approached the central column. Here he raised the bodyand thrust it into the aperture where Bradley saw it dropsuddenly from sight. Instantly there flashed into his memory thecircular openings in the roof of the river vault and the corpseshe had seen drop from them to the water beneath.

As the body disappeared, the Wieroo turned and cast about theroom for the girl. For a moment he stood eying her. "You saw,"he muttered, "and if you tell them, He Who Speaks for Luata willhave my wings severed while still I live and my head will besevered and I shall be cast into the River of Death, for thus ithappens even to the highest who slay one of the red robe. You saw,and you must die!" he ended with a scream as he rushed upon the girl.

Bradley waited no longer. Leaping into the room he ran for theWieroo, who had already seized the girl, and as he ran, hestooped and picked up the curved blade. The creature's back wastoward him as, with his left hand, he seized it by the neck.Like a flash the great wings beat backward as the creatureturned, and Bradley was swept from his feet, though he stillretained his hold upon the blade. Instantly the Wieroo wasupon him. Bradley lay slightly raised upon his left elbow, hisright arm free, and as the thing came close, he cut at the hideousface with all the strength that lay within him. The blade struckat the junction of the neck and torso and with such force as tocompletely decapitate the Wieroo, the hideous head dropping tothe floor and the body falling forward upon the Englishman.Pushing it from him he rose to his feet and faced the wide-eyed girl.

"Luata!" she exclaimed. "How came you here?"

Bradley shrugged. "Here I am," he said; "but the thing now is toget out of here--both of us."

The girl shook her head. "It cannot be," she stated sadly.

"That is what I thought when they dropped me into the Blue Placeof Seven Skulls," replied Bradley. "Can't be done. I did it.--Here! You're mussing up the floor something awful, you." This last

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to the dead Wieroo as he stooped and dragged the corpse to thecentral shaft, where he raised it to the aperture and let itslip into the tube. Then he picked up the head and tossed itafter the body. "Don't be so glum," he admonished the former ashe carried it toward the well; "smile!"

"But how can he smile?" questioned the girl, a half-puzzled,half-frightened look upon her face. "He is dead."

"That's so," admitted Bradley, "and I suppose he does feel a bitcut up about it."

The girl shook her head and edged away from the man--toward the door.

"Come!" said the Englishman. "We've got to get out of here.If you don't know a better way than the river, it's the river then."

The girl still eyed him askance. "But how could he smile when hewas dead?"

Bradley laughed aloud. "I thought we English were supposed tohave the least sense of humor of any people in the world," hecried; "but now I've found one human being who hasn't any.Of course you don't know half I'm saying; but don't worry, littlegirl; I'm not going to hurt you, and if I can get you out ofhere, I'll do it.

Even if she did not understand all he said, she at least readsomething in his smiling, countenance--something which reassured her."I do not fear you," she said; "though I do not understand allthat you say even though you speak my own tongue and use wordsthat I know. But as for escaping"--she sighed--"alas, how canit be done?"

"I escaped from the Blue Place of Seven Skulls," Bradleyreminded her. "Come!" And he turned toward the shaft andthe ladder that he had ascended from the river. "We cannotwaste time here."

The girl followed him; but at the doorway both drew back, forfrom below came the sound of some one ascending.

Bradley tiptoed to the door and peered cautiously into the well;then he stepped back beside the girl. "There are half a dozen ofthem coming up; but possibly they will pass this room."

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"No," she said, "they will pass directly through this room--theyare on their way to Him Who Speaks for Luata. We may be able tohide in the next room--there are skins there beneath which wemay crawl. They will not stop in that room; but they may stop inthis one for a short time--the other room is blue."

"What's that go to do with it?" demanded the Englishman.

"They fear blue," she replied. "In every room where murder hasbeen done you will find blue--a certain amount for each murder.When the room is all blue, they shun it. This room has muchblue; but evidently they kill mostly in the next room, which isnow all blue."

"But there is blue on the outside of every house I have seen,"said Bradley.

"Yes, " assented the girl, "and there are blue rooms in each ofthose houses--when all the rooms are blue then the whole outsideof the house will be blue as is the Blue Place of Seven Skulls.There are many such here."

"And the skulls with blue upon them?" inquired Bradley."Did they belong to murderers?"

"They were murdered--some of them; those with only a small amountof blue were murderers--known murderers. All Wieroos are murderers.When they have committed a certain number of murders without beingcaught at it, they confess to Him Who Speaks for Luata and areadvanced, after which they wear robes with a slash of some color--I think yellow comes first. When they reach a point where theentire robe is of yellow, they discard it for a white robe with ared slash; and when one wins a complete red robe, he carries sucha long, curved knife as you have in your hand; after that comesthe blue slash on a white robe, and then, I suppose, an all blue robe.I have never seen such a one."

As they talked in low tones they had moved from the room of thedeath shaft into an all blue room adjoining, where they sat downtogether in a corner with their backs against a wall and drew apile of hides over themselves. A moment later they heard anumber of Wieroos enter the chamber. They were talking togetheras they crossed the floor, or the two could not have heard them.Halfway across the chamber they halted as the door toward which

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they were advancing opened and a dozen others of their kindentered the apartment.

Bradley could guess all this by the increased volume of sound andthe dismal greetings; but the sudden silence that almostimmediately ensued he could not fathom, for he could not knowthat from beneath one of the hides that covered him protruded oneof his heavy army shoes, or that some eighteen large Wieroos withrobes either solid red or slashed with red or blue were standinggazing at it. Nor could he hear their stealthy approach.

The first intimation he had that he had been discovered was whenhis foot was suddenly seized, and he was yanked violently frombeneath the hides to find himself surrounded by menacing blades.They would have slain him on the spot had not one clothed all inred held them back, saying that He Who Speaks for Luata desiredto see this strange creature.

As they led Bradley away, he caught an opportunity to glance backtoward the hides to see what had become of the girl, and, to hisgratification, he discovered that she still lay concealed beneaththe hides. He wondered if she would have the nerve to attemptthe river trip alone and regretted that now he could notaccompany her. He felt rather all in, himself, more so thanhe had at any time since he had been captured by the Wieroo,for there appeared not the slightest cause for hope in hispresent predicament. He had dropped the curved blade beneath thehides when he had been jerked so violently from their fancied security.It was almost in a spirit of resigned hopelessness that he quietlyaccompanied his captors through various chambers and corridorstoward the heart of the temple.

Chapter 4

The farther the group progressed, the more barbaric and the moresumptuous became the decorations. Hides of leopard and tigerpredominated, apparently because of their more beautifulmarkings, and decorative skulls became more and more numerous.Many of the latter were mounted in precious metals and set withcolored stones and priceless gems, while thick upon the hidesthat covered the walls were golden ornaments similar to thoseworn by the girl and those which had filled the chests he had

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examined in the storeroom of Fosh-bal-soj, leading the Englishmanto the conviction that all such were spoils of war or theft,since each piece seemed made for personal adornment, while in sofar as he had seen, no Wieroo wore ornaments of any sort.

And also as they advanced the more numerous became the Wieroosmoving hither and thither within the temple. Many now were thesolid red robes and those that were slashed with blue--averitable hive of murderers.

At last the party halted in a room in which were many Wieroos whogathered about Bradley questioning his captors and examining himand his apparel. One of the party accompanying the Englishmanspoke to a Wieroo that stood beside a door leading from the room."Tell Him Who Speaks for Luata," he said, "that Fosh-bal-soj wecould not find; but that in returning we found this creaturewithin the temple, hiding. It must be the same that Fosh-bal-sojcaptured in the Sto-lu country during the last darkness.Doubtless He Who Speaks for Luata would wish to see and questionthis strange thing."

The creature addressed turned and slipped through the doorway,closing the door after it, but first depositing its curved bladeupon the floor without. Its post was immediately taken byanother and Bradley now saw that at least twenty such guardsloitered in the immediate vicinity. The doorkeeper was gone butfor a moment, and when he returned, he signified that Bradley'sparty was to enter the next chamber; but first each of theWieroos removed his curved weapon and laid it upon the floor.The door was swung open, and the party, now reduced to Bradleyand five Wieroos, was ushered across the threshold into a large,irregularly shaped room in which a single, giant Wieroo whoserobe was solid blue sat upon a raised dais.

The creature's face was white with the whiteness of a corpse, itsdead eyes entirely expressionless, its cruel, thin lips tight-drawnagainst yellow teeth in a perpetual grimace. Upon either side ofit lay an enormous, curved sword, similar to those with which someof the other Wieroos had been armed, but larger and heavier.Constantly its clawlike fingers played with one or the other ofthese weapons.

The walls of the chamber as well as the floor were entirelyhidden by skins and woven fabrics. Blue predominated in allthe colorations. Fastened against the hides were many pairs of

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Wieroo wings, mounted so that they resembled long, black shields.Upon the ceiling were painted in blue characters a bewilderingseries of hieroglyphics and upon pedestals set against the wallsor standing out well within the room were many human skulls.

As the Wieroos approached the figure upon the dais, they leanedfar forward, raising their wings above their heads and stretchingtheir necks as though offering them to the sharp swords of thegrim and hideous creature.

"O Thou Who Speakest for Luata!" exclaimed one of the party."We bring you the strange creature that Fosh-bal-soj capturedand brought thither at thy command."

So this then was the godlike figure that spoke for divinity!This arch-murderer was the Caspakian representative of God on Earth!His blue robe announced him the one and the seeming humility of hisminions the other. For a long minute he glared at Bradley. Then hebegan to question him--from whence he came and how, the name anddescription of his native country, and a hundred other queries.

"Are you cos-ata-lu?" the creature asked.

Bradley replied that he was and that all his kind were, as wellas every living thing in his part of the world.

"Can you tell me the secret?" asked the creature.

Bradley hesitated and then, thinking to gain time, replied inthe affirmative.

"What is it?" demanded the Wieroo, leaning far forward andexhibiting every evidence of excited interest.

Bradley leaned forward and whispered: "It is for your ears alone;I will not divulge it to others, and then only on condition thatyou carry me and the girl I saw in the place of the yellow doornear to that of Fosh-bal-soj back to her own country."

The thing rose in wrath, holding one of its swords above its head.

"Who are you to make terms for Him Who Speaks for Luata?"it shrilled. "Tell me the secret or die where you stand!"

"And if I die now, the secret goes with me," Bradley reminded him.

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"Never again will you get the opportunity to question another ofmy kind who knows the secret." Anything to gain time, to get therest of the Wieroos from the room, that he might plan some schemefor escape and put it into effect.

The creature turned upon the leader of the party that hadbrought Bradley.

"Is the thing with weapons?" it asked.

"No," was the response.

"Then go; but tell the guard to remain close by," commanded thehigh one.

The Wieroos salaamed and withdrew, closing the door behind them.He Who Speaks for Luata grasped a sword nervously in his right hand.At his left side lay the second weapon. It was evident that helived in constant dread of being assassinated. The fact that hepermitted none with weapons within his presence and that healways kept two swords at his side pointed to this.

Bradley was racking his brain to find some suggestion of a planwhereby he might turn the situation to his own account. His eyeswandered past the weird figure before him; they played about thewalls of the apartment as though hoping to draw inspiration fromthe dead skulls and the hides and the wings, and then they cameback to the face of the Wieroo god, now working in anger.

"Quick!" screamed the thing. "The secret!"

"Will you give me and the girl our freedom?" insisted Bradley.

For an instant the thing hesitated, and then it grumbled "Yes."At the same instant Bradley saw two hides upon the wall directlyback of the dais separate and a face appear in the opening.No change of expression upon the Englishman's countenance betrayedthat he had seen aught to surprise him, though surprised he wasfor the face in the aperture was that of the girl he had but justleft hidden beneath the hides in another chamber. A white andshapely arm now pushed past the face into the room, and in thehand, tightly clutched, was the curved blade, smeared with blood,that Bradley had dropped beneath the hides at the moment he hadbeen discovered and drawn from his concealment.

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"Listen, then," said Bradley in a low voice to the Wieroo."You shall know the secret of cos-ata-lu as well as doI; but none other may hear it. Lean close--I will whisperit into your ear."

He moved forward and stepped upon the dais. The creature raisedits sword ready to strike at the first indication of treachery,and Bradley stooped beneath the blade and put his ear close tothe gruesome face. As he did so, he rested his weight upon hishands, one upon either side of the Wieroo's body, his right handupon the hilt of the spare sword lying at the left of Him WhoSpeaks for Luata.

"This then is the secret of both life and death," he whispered,and at the same instant he grasped the Wieroo by the right wristand with his own right hand swung the extra blade in a suddenvicious blow against the creature's neck before the thing couldgive even a single cry of alarm; then without waiting an instantBradley leaped past the dead god and vanished behind the hidesthat had hidden the girl.

Wide-eyed and panting the girl seized his arm. "Oh, what haveyou done?" she cried. "He Who Speaks for Luata will be avengedby Luata. Now indeed must you die. There is no escape, for eventhough we reached my own country Luata can find you out."

"Bosh!" exclaimed Bradley, and then: "But you were going to knifehim yourself."

"Then I alone should have died," she replied.

Bradley scratched his head. "Neither of us is going to die," hesaid; "at least not at the hands of any god. If we don't get outof here though, we'll die right enough. Can you find your wayback to the room where I first came upon you in the temple?"

"I know the way," replied the girl; "but I doubt if we can goback without being seen. I came hither because I only metWieroos who knew that I am supposed now to be in the temple;but you could go elsewhere without being discovered."

Bradley's ingenuity had come up against a stone wall.There seemed no possibility of escape. He looked about him.They were in a small room where lay a litter of rubbish--tornbits of cloth, old hides, pieces of fiber rope. In the center

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of the room was a cylindrical shaft with an opening in its face.Bradley knew it for what it was. Here the arch-fiend dragged hisvictims and cast their bodies into the river of death far below.The floor about the opening in the shaft and the sides of theshaft were clotted thick with a dried, dark brown substance thatthe Englishman knew had once been blood. The place had theappearance of having been a veritable shambles. An odor ofdecaying flesh permeated the air.

The Englishman crossed to the shaft and peered into the opening.All below was dark as pitch; but at the bottom he knew wasthe river. Suddenly an inspiration and a bold scheme leaped tohis mind. Turning quickly he hunted about the room until hefound what he sought--a quantity of the rope that lay strewn hereand there. With rapid fingers he unsnarled the different lengths,the girl helping him, and then he tied the ends together until hehad three ropes about seventy-five feet in length. He fastenedthese together at each end and without a word secured one of theends about the girl's body beneath her arms.

"Don't be frightened," he said at length, as he led her towardthe opening in the shaft. "I'm going to lower you to the river,and then I'm coming down after you. When you are safe below,give two quick jerks upon the rope. If there is danger there andyou want me to draw you up into the shaft, jerk once. Don't beafraid--it is the only way."

"I am not afraid," replied the girl, rather haughtily Bradleythought, and herself climbed through the aperture and hung by herhands waiting for Bradley to lower her.

As rapidly as was consistent with safety, the man paid out the rope.When it was about half out, he heard loud cries and wails suddenlyarise within the room they had just quitted. The slaying of theirgod had been discovered by the Wieroos. A search for the slayerwould begin at once.

Lord! Would the girl never reach the river? At last, just as hewas positive that searchers were already entering the room behindhim, there came two quick tugs at the rope. Instantly Bradleymade the rest of the strands fast about the shaft, slipped intothe black tube and began a hurried descent toward the river.An instant later he stood waist deep in water beside the girl.Impulsively she reached toward him and grasped his arm.A strange thrill ran through him at the contact; but he only cut

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the rope from about her body and lifted her to the little shelfat the river's side.

"How can we leave here?" she asked.

"By the river," he replied; "but first I must go back to theBlue Place of Seven Skulls and get the poor devil I left there.I'll have to wait until after dark, though, as I cannot passthrough the open stretch of river in the temple gardens by day."

"There is another way," said the girl. "I have never seenit; but often I have heard them speak of it--a corridor thatruns beside the river from one end of the city to the other.Through the gardens it is below ground. If we could find anentrance to it, we could leave here at once. It is not safe here,for they will search every inch of the temple and the grounds."

"Come," said Bradley. "We'll have a look for it, anyway." And sosaying he approached one of the doors that opened onto theskull-paved shelf.

They found the corridor easily, for it paralleled the river,separated from it only by a single wall. It took them beneath thegardens and the city, always through inky darkness. After theyhad reached the other side of the gardens, Bradley counted hissteps until he had retraced as many as he had taken coming downthe stream; but though they had to grope their way along, it wasa much more rapid trip than the former.

When he thought he was about opposite the point at which he haddescended from the Blue Place of Seven Skulls, he sought andfound a doorway leading out onto the river; and then, still inthe blackest darkness, he lowered himself into the stream andfelt up and down upon the opposite side for the little shelf andthe ladder. Ten yards from where he had emerged he found them,while the girl waited upon the opposite side.

To ascend to the secret panel was the work of but a minute.Here he paused and listened lest a Wieroo might be visiting theprison in search of him or the other inmate; but no sound came fromthe gloomy interior. Bradley could not but muse upon the joy ofthe man on the opposite side when he should drop down to him withfood and a new hope for escape. Then he opened the panel andlooked into the room. The faint light from the grating aboverevealed the pile of rags in one corner; but the man lay beneath

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them, he made no response to Bradley's low greeting.

The Englishman lowered himself to the floor of the room andapproached the rags. Stooping he lifted a corner of them.Yes, there was the man asleep. Bradley shook him--there wasno response. He stooped lower and in the dim light examinedAn-Tak; then he stood up with a sigh. A rat leaped from beneaththe coverings and scurried away. "Poor devil!" muttered Bradley.

He crossed the room to swing himself to the perch preparatory toquitting the Blue Place of Seven Skulls forever. Beneath theperch he paused. "I'll not give them the satisfaction," he growled."Let them believe that he escaped."

Returning to the pile of rags he gathered the man into his arms.It was difficult work raising him to the high perch and dragginghim through the small opening and thus down the ladder; butpresently it was done, and Bradley had lowered the body into theriver and cast it off. "Good-bye, old top!" he whispered.

A moment later he had rejoined the girl and hand in hand theywere following the dark corridor upstream toward the farther endof the city. She told him that the Wieroos seldom frequentedthese lower passages, as the air here was too chill for them; butoccasionally they came, and as they could see quite as well bynight as by day, they would be sure to discover Bradley and the girl.

"If they come close enough," she said, "we can see their eyesshining in the dark--they resemble dull splotches of light.They glow, but do not blaze like the eyes of the tiger or the lion."

The man could not but note the very evident horror with which shementioned the creatures. To him they were uncanny; but she hadbeen used to them for a year almost, and probably all her lifeshe had either seen or heard of them constantly.

"Why do you fear them so?" he asked. "It seems more than anyordinary fear of the harm they can do you."

She tried to explain; but the nearest he could gather was thatshe looked upon the Wieroo almost as supernatural beings."There is a legend current among my people that once the Wieroowere unlike us only in that they possessed rudimentary wings.They lived in villages in the Galu country, and while the two peoplesoften warred, they held no hatred for one another. In those days

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each race came up from the beginning and there was great rivalryas to which was the higher in the scale of evolution. The Wieroodeveloped the first cos-ata-lu but they were always male--never could they reproduce woman. Slowly they commenced todevelop certain attributes of the mind which, they considered,placed them upon a still higher level and which gave them manyadvantages over us, seeing which they thought only of mentaldevelopment--their minds became like stars and the rivers, movingalways in the same manner, never varying. They called thistas-ad, which means doing everything the right way, or, inother words, the Wieroo way. If foe or friend, right or wrong,stood in the way of tas-ad, then it must be crushed.

"Soon the Galus and the lesser races of men came to hate andfear them. It was then that the Wieroos decided to carrytas-ad into every part of the world. They were verywarlike and very numerous, although they had long since adoptedthe policy of slaying all those among them whose wings did notshow advanced development.

"It took ages for all this to happen--very slowly came thedifferent changes; but at last the Wieroos had wings theycould use. But by reason of always making war upon their neighborsthey were hated by every creature of Caspak, for no one wantedtheir tas-ad, and so they used their wings to fly to thisisland when the other races turned against them and threatened tokill them all. So cruel had they become and so bloodthirsty thatthey no longer had hearts that beat with love or sympathy; buttheir very cruelty and wickedness kept them from conquering theother races, since they were also cruel and wicked to oneanother, so that no Wieroo trusted another.

"Always were they slaying those above them that they might risein power and possessions, until at last came the more powerfulthan the others with a tas-ad all his own. He gatheredabout him a few of the most terrible Wieroos, and among them theymade laws which took from all but these few Wieroos every weaponthey possessed.

"Now their tas-ad has reached a high plane among them.They make many wonderful things that we cannot make. They thinkgreat thoughts, no doubt, and still dream of greatness to come,but their thoughts and their acts are regulated by ages ofcustom--they are all alike--and they are most unhappy.

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As the girl talked, the two moved steadily along the darkpassageway beside the river. They had advanced a considerabledistance when there sounded faintly from far ahead the muffledroar of falling water, which increased in volume as they movedforward until at last it filled the corridor with a deafening sound.Then the corridor ended in a blank wall; but in a niche to theright was a ladder leading aloft, and to the left was a dooropening onto the river. Bradley tried the latter first andas he opened it, felt a heavy spray against his face. The littleshelf outside the doorway was wet and slippery, the roaring ofthe water tremendous. There could be but one explanation--theyhad reached a waterfall in the river, and if the corridoractually terminated here, their escape was effectually cut off,since it was quite evidently impossible to follow the bed of theriver and ascend the falls.

As the ladder was the only alternative, the two turned towardit and, the man first, began the ascent, which was through awell similar to that which had led him to the upper floors ofthe temple. As he climbed, Bradley felt for openings in the sidesof the shaft; but he discovered none below fifty feet. The firsthe came to was ajar, letting a faint light into the well. As hepaused, the girl climbed to his side, and together they lookedthrough the crack into a low-ceiled chamber in which were severalGalu women and an equal number of hideous little replicas of thefull-grown Wieroos with which Bradley was not quite familiar.

He could feel the body of the girl pressed close to his trembleas her eyes rested upon the inmates of the room, and involuntarilyhis arm encircled her shoulders as though to protect her from somedanger which he sensed without recognizing.

"Poor things," she whispered. "This is their horrible fate--tobe imprisoned here beneath the surface of the city with theirhideous offspring whom they hate as they hate their fathers.A Wieroo keeps his children thus hidden until they are full-grownlest they be murdered by their fellows. The lower rooms of thecity are filled with many such as these."

Several feet above was a second door beyond which they found asmall room stored with food in wooden vessels. A grated windowin one wall opened above an alley, and through it they could seethat they were just below the roof of the building. Darkness wascoming, and at Bradley's suggestion they decided to remain hiddenhere until after dark and then to ascend to the roof and reconnoiter.

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Shortly after they had settled themselves they heard somethingdescending the ladder from above. They hoped that it wouldcontinue on down the well and fairly held their breath as thesound approached the door to the storeroom. Their hearts sank asthey heard the door open and from between cracks in the vesselsbehind which they hid saw a yellow-slashed Wieroo enter the room.Each recognized him immediately, the girl indicating the fact ofher own recognition by a sudden pressure of her fingers onBradley's arm. It was the Wieroo of the yellow slashing whoseabode was the place of the yellow door in which Bradley had firstseen the girl.

The creature carried a wooden bowl which it filled with driedfood from several of the vessels; then it turned and quit the room.Bradley could see through the partially open doorway that itdescended the ladder. The girl told him that it was taking thefood to the women and the young below, and that while it mightreturn immediately, the chances were that it would remain forsome time.

"We are just below the place of the yellow door," she said."It is far from the edge of the city; so far that we may nothope to escape if we ascend to the roofs here."

"I think," replied the man, "that of all the places in Oo-oh thiswill be the easiest to escape from. Anyway, I want to return tothe place of the yellow door and get my pistol if it is there."

"It is still there," replied, the girl. "I saw it placed in a chestwhere he keeps the things he takes from his prisoners and victims."

"Good!" exclaimed Bradley. "Now come, quickly. "And the twocrossed the room to the well and ascended the ladder a shortdistance to its top where they found another door that openedinto a vacant room--the same in which Bradley had first metthe girl. To find the pistol was a matter of but a moment'ssearch on the part of Bradley's companion; and then, at theEnglishman's signal, she followed him to the yellow door.

It was quite dark without as the two entered the narrow passagebetween two buildings. A few steps brought them undiscovered tothe doorway of the storeroom where lay the body of Fosh-bal-soj.In the distance, toward the temple, they could hear sounds as ofa great gathering of Wieroos--the peculiar, uncanny wailing

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rising above the dismal flapping of countless wings.

"They have heard of the killing of Him Who Speaks for Luata,"whispered the girl. "Soon they will spread in all directionssearching for us."

"And will they find us?"

"As surely as Lua gives light by day," she replied; "and whenthey find us, they will tear us to pieces, for only the Wieroosmay murder--only they may practice tas-ad."

"But they will not kill you," said Bradley. "You did not slay him."

"It will make no difference," she insisted. "If they find ustogether they will slay us both."

"Then they won't find us together," announced Bradley decisively."You stay right here--you won't be any worse off than before Icame--and I'll get as far as I can and account for as many of thebeggars as possible before they get me. Good-bye! You're a mightydecent little girl. I wish that I might have helped you."

"No," she cried. "Do not leave me. I would rather die. I hadhoped and hoped to find some way to return to my own country.I wanted to go back to An-Tak, who must be very lonely without me;but I know that it can never be. It is difficult to kill hope,though mine is nearly dead. Do not leave me."

"An-Tak!" Bradley repeated. "You loved a man called An-Tak?"

"Yes," replied the girl. "An-Tak was away, hunting, when theWieroo caught me. How he must have grieved for me! He also wascos-ata-lu, twelve moons older than I, and all our lives wehave been together.

Bradley remained silent. So she loved An-Tak. He hadn't theheart to tell her that An-Tak had died, or how.

At the door of Fosh-bal-soj's storeroom they halted to listen.No sound came from within, and gently Bradley pushed open the door.All was inky darkness as they entered; but presently their eyesbecame accustomed to the gloom that was partially relieved by thesoft starlight without. The Englishman searched and found thosethings for which he had come--two robes, two pairs of dead wings

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and several lengths of fiber rope. One pair of the wings headjusted to the girl's shoulders by means of the rope. Then hedraped the robe about her, carrying the cowl over her head.

He heard her gasp of astonishment when she realized the ingenuityand boldness of his plan; then he directed her to adjust the otherpair of wings and the robe upon him. Working with strong, deftfingers she soon had the work completed, and the two stepped outupon the roof, to all intent and purpose genuine Wieroos. Besides hispistol Bradley carried the sword of the slain Wieroo prophet, whilethe girl was armed with the small blade of the red Wieroo.

Side by side they walked slowly across the roofs toward the northedge of the city. Wieroos flapped above them and several timesthey passed others walking or sitting upon the roofs. From thetemple still rose the sounds of commotion, now pierced byoccasional shrill screams.

"The murderers are abroad," whispered the girl. "Thus willanother become the tongue of Luata. It is well for us, since itkeeps them too busy to give the time for searching for us.They think that we cannot escape the city, and they know thatwe cannot leave the island--and so do I."

Bradley shook his head. "If there is any way, we will find it,"he said.

"There is no way," replied the girl.

Bradley made no response, and in silence they continued until theouter edge of roofs was visible before them. "We are almostthere," he whispered.

The girl felt for his fingers and pressed them. He could feelhers trembling as he returned the pressure, nor did he relinquishher hand; and thus they came to the edge of the last roof.

Here they halted and looked about them. To be seen attempting todescend to the ground below would be to betray the fact that theywere not Wieroos. Bradley wished that their wings were attachedto their bodies by sinew and muscle rather than by ropes of fiber.A Wieroo was flapping far overhead. Two more stood near a door afew yards distant. Standing between these and one of the outerpedestals that supported one of the numerous skulls Bradley madeone end of a piece of rope fast about the pedestal and dropped

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the other end to the ground outside the city. Then they waited.

It was an hour before the coast was entirely clear and then amoment came when no Wieroo was in sight. "Now!" whisperedBradley; and the girl grasped the rope and slid over the edge ofthe roof into the darkness below. A moment later Bradley felttwo quick pulls upon the rope and immediately followed to thegirl's side.

Across a narrow clearing they made their way and into a wood beyond.All night they walked, following the river upward toward its source,and at dawn they took shelter in a thicket beside the stream. At notime did they hear the cry of a carnivore, and though many startledanimals fled as they approached, they were not once menaced by awild beast. When Bradley expressed surprise at the absence of thefiercest beasts that are so numerous upon the mainland of Caprona,the girl explained the reason that is contained in one of theirancient legends.

"When the Wieroos first developed wings upon which they couldfly, they found this island devoid of any life other than afew reptiles that live either upon land or in the water andthese only close to the coast. Requiring meat for food theWieroos carried to the island such animals as they wished forthat purpose. They still occasionally bring them, and thiswith the natural increase keeps them provided with flesh."

"As it will us," suggested Bradley.

The first day they remained in hiding, eating only the dried foodthat Bradley had brought with him from the temple storeroom, andthe next night they set out again up the river, continuingsteadily on until almost dawn, when they came to low hills wherethe river wound through a gorge--it was little more than rivuletnow, the water clear and cold and filled with fish similar tobrook trout though much larger. Not wishing to leave the streamthe two waded along its bed to a spot where the gorge widenedbetween perpendicular bluffs to a wooded acre of level land.Here they stopped, for here also the stream ended. They hadreached its source--many cold springs bubbling up from the centerof a little natural amphitheater in the hills and forming a clearand beautiful pool overshadowed by trees upon one side andbounded by a little clearing upon the other.

With the coming of the sun they saw they had stumbled upon a

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place where they might remain hidden from the Wieroos for a longtime and also one that they could defend against these wingedcreatures, since the trees would shield them from an attack fromabove and also hamper the movements of the creatures should theyattempt to follow them into the wood.

For three days they rested here before trying to explore theneighboring country. On the fourth, Bradley stated that he wasgoing to scale the bluffs and learn what lay beyond. He told thegirl that she should remain in hiding; but she refused to beleft, saying that whatever fate was to be his, she intended toshare it, so that he was at last forced to permit her to comewith him. Through woods at the summit of the bluff they madetheir way toward the north and had gone but a short distance whenthe wood ended and before them they saw the waters of the inlandsea and dimly in the distance the coveted shore.

The beach lay some two hundred yards from the foot of the hillon which they stood, nor was there a tree nor any other form ofshelter between them and the water as far up and down the coastas they could see. Among other plans Bradley had thought ofconstructing a covered raft upon which they might drift to themainland; but as such a contrivance would necessarily be ofconsiderable weight, it must be built in the water of the sea,since they could not hope to move it even a short distance overland.

"If this wood was only at the edge of the water," he sighed.

"But it is not," the girl reminded him, and then: "Let us makethe best of it. We have escaped from death for a time at least.We have food and good water and peace and each other. What morecould we have upon the mainland?"

"But I thought you wanted to get back to your own country!"he exclaimed.

She cast her eyes upon the ground and half turned away. "I do,"she said, "yet I am happy here. I could be little happier there."

Bradley stood in silent thought. "`We have food and good waterand peace and each other!'" he repeated to himself. He turnedthen and looked at the girl, and it was as though in the daysthat they had been together this was the first time that hehad really seen her. The circumstances that had thrown themtogether, the dangers through which they had passed, all the

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weird and horrible surroundings that had formed the background ofhis knowledge of her had had their effect--she had been but thecompanion of an adventure; her self-reliance, her endurance, herloyalty, had been only what one man might expect of another, andhe saw that he had unconsciously assumed an attitude toward herthat he might have assumed toward a man. Yet there had been adifference--he recalled now the strange sensation of elation thathad thrilled him upon the occasions when the girl had pressed hishand in hers, and the depression that had followed her announcementof her love for An-Tak.

He took a step toward her. A fierce yearning to seize her andcrush her in his arms, swept over him, and then there flashedupon the screen of recollection the picture of a stately hall setamidst broad gardens and ancient trees and of a proud old manwith beetling brows--an old man who held his head very high--andBradley shook his head and turned away again.

They went back then to their little acre, and the days cameand went, and the man fashioned spear and bow and arrows andhunted with them that they might have meat, and he made hooksof fishbone and caught fishes with wondrous flies of his owninvention; and the girl gathered fruits and cooked the fleshand the fish and made beds of branches and soft grasses.She cured the hides of the animals he killed and made themsoft by much pounding. She made sandals for herself and forthe man and fashioned a hide after the manner of those wornby the warriors of her tribe and made the man wear it, for hisown garments were in rags.

She was always the same--sweet and kind and helpful--but alwaysthere was about her manner and her expression just a trace ofwistfulness, and often she sat and looked at the man when he didnot know it, her brows puckered in thought as though she weretrying to fathom and to understand him.

In the face of the cliff, Bradley scooped a cave from the rottedgranite of which the hill was composed, making a shelter for themagainst the rains. He brought wood for their cook-fire whichthey used only in the middle of the day--a time when there waslittle likelihood of Wieroos being in the air so far from theircity--and then he learned to bank it with earth in such a way thatthe embers held until the following noon without giving off smoke.

Always he was planning on reaching the mainland, and never a day

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passed that he did not go to the top of the hill and look outacross the sea toward the dark, distant line that meant forhim comparative freedom and possibly reunion with his comrades.The girl always went with him, standing at his side and watching thestern expression on his face with just a tinge of sadness on her own.

"You are not happy," she said once.

"I should be over there with my men," he replied. "I do not knowwhat may have happened to them."

"I want you to be happy," she said quite simply; "but I shouldbe very lonely if you went away and left me here."

He put his hand on her shoulder. "I would not do that, littlegirl," he said gently. "If you cannot go with me, I shall not go.If either of us must go alone, it will be you."

Her face lighted to a wondrous smile. "Then we shall not beseparated," she said, "for I shall never leave you as long as weboth live."

He looked down into her face for a moment and then: "Who wasAn-Tak? " he asked.

"My brother," she replied. "Why?"

And then, even less than before, could he tell her. It was thenthat he did something he had never done before--he put his armsabout her and stooping, kissed her forehead. "Until you findAn-Tak, he said, "I will be your brother."

She drew away. "I already have a brother," she said, "and I donot want another."

Chapter 5

Days became weeks, and weeks became months, and the monthsfollowed one another in a lazy procession of hot, humid days andwarm, humid nights. The fugitives saw never a Wieroo by daythough often at night they heard the melancholy flapping of giantwings far above them.

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Each day was much like its predecessor. Bradley splashed aboutfor a few minutes in the cold pool early each morning and aftera time the girl tried it and liked it. Toward the center it wasdeep enough for swimming, and so he taught her to swim--she wasprobably the first human being in all Caspak's long ages who haddone this thing. And then while she prepared breakfast, the manshaved--this he never neglected. At first it was a source ofwonderment to the girl, for the Galu men are beardless.

When they needed meat, he hunted, otherwise he busied himselfin improving their shelter, making new and better weapons,perfecting his knowledge of the girl's language and teaching herto speak and to write English--anything that would keep themboth occupied. He still sought new plans for escape, but withever-lessening enthusiasm, since each new scheme presented someinsurmountable obstacle.

And then one day as a bolt out of a clear sky came that whichblasted the peace and security of their sanctuary forever.Bradley was just emerging from the water after his morningplunge when from overhead came the sound of flapping wings.Glancing quickly up the man saw a white-robed Wieroo circlingslowly above him. That he had been discovered he could notdoubt since the creature even dropped to a lower altitude asthough to assure itself that what it saw was a man. Then itrose rapidly and winged away toward the city.

For two days Bradley and the girl lived in a constant state ofapprehension, awaiting the moment when the hunters would come forthem; but nothing happened until just after dawn of the thirdday, when the flapping of wings apprised them of the approachof Wieroos. Together they went to the edge of the wood andlooked up to see five red-robed creatures dropping slowly inever-lessening spirals toward their little amphitheater. With noattempt at concealment they came, sure of their ability tooverwhelm these two fugitives, and with the fullest measure ofself-confidence they landed in the clearing but a few yards fromthe man and the girl.

Following a plan already discussed Bradley and the girl retreatedslowly into the woods. The Wieroos advanced, calling upon themto give themselves up; but the quarry made no reply. Farther andfarther into the little wood Bradley led the hunters, permittingthem to approach ever closer; then he circled back again toward

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the clearing, evidently to the great delight of the Wieroos, whonow followed more leisurely, awaiting the moment when they shouldbe beyond the trees and able to use their wings. They had openedinto semicircular formation now with the evident intention ofcutting the two off from returning into the wood. Each Wierooadvanced with his curved blade ready in his hand, each hideousface blank and expressionless.

It was then that Bradley opened fire with his pistol--threeshots, aimed with careful deliberation, for it had been longsince he had used the weapon, and he could not afford to chancewasting ammunition on misses. At each shot a Wieroo dropped; andthen the remaining two sought escape by flight, screaming andwailing after the manner of their kind. When a Wieroo runs, hiswings spread almost without any volition upon his part, sincefrom time immemorial he has always used them to balance himselfand accelerate his running speed so that in the open they appearto skim the surface of the ground when in the act of running.But here in the woods, among the close-set boles, the spreadingof their wings proved their undoing--it hindered and stopped themand threw them to the ground, and then Bradley was upon themthreatening them with instant death if they did not surrender--promising them their freedom if they did his bidding.

"As you have seen," he cried, "I can kill you when I wish and ata distance. You cannot escape me. Your only hope of life liesin obedience. Quick, or I kill!"

The Wieroos stopped and faced him. "What do you want of us?"asked one.

"Throw aside your weapons," Bradley commanded. After a moment'shesitation they obeyed.

"Now approach!" A great plan--the only plan--had suddenly cometo him like an inspiration.

The Wieroos came closer and halted at his command. Bradley turnedto the girl. "There is rope in the shelter," he said. "Fetch it!"

She did as he bid, and then he directed her to fasten one end ofa fifty-foot length to the ankle of one of the Wieroos and theopposite end to the second. The creatures gave evidence of greatfear, but they dared not attempt to prevent the act.

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"Now go out into the clearing," said Bradley, "and remember thatI am walking close behind and that I will shoot the nearer oneshould either attempt to escape--that will hold the other untilI can kill him as well."

In the open he halted them. "The girl will get upon the backof the one in front," announced the Englishman. "I will mountthe other. She carries a sharp blade, and I carry this weaponthat you know kills easily at a distance. If you disobey inthe slightest, the instructions that I am about to give you, youshall both die. That we must die with you, will not deter us.If you obey, I promise to set you free without harming you.

"You will carry us due west, depositing us upon the shore of themainland--that is all. It is the price of your lives. Do you agree?"

Sullenly the Wieroos acquiesced. Bradley examined the knots thatheld the rope to their ankles, and feeling them secure directedthe girl to mount the back of the leading Wieroo, himself uponthe other. Then he gave the signal for the two to rise together.With loud flapping of the powerful wings the creatures took tothe air, circling once before they topped the trees upon the hilland then taking a course due west out over the waters of the sea.

Nowhere about them could Bradley see signs of other Wieroos, norof those other menaces which he had feared might bring disasterto his plans for escape--the huge, winged reptilia that are sonumerous above the southern areas of Caspak and which are oftenseen, though in lesser numbers, farther north.

Nearer and nearer loomed the mainland--a broad, parklike expansestretching inland to the foot of a low plateau spread out before them.The little dots in the foreground became grazing herds of deerand antelope and bos; a huge woolly rhinoceros wallowed in amudhole to the right, and beyond, a mighty mammoth culled thetender shoots from a tall tree. The roars and screams and growlsof giant carnivora came faintly to their ears. Ah, this was Caspak.With all of its dangers and its primal savagery it brought afullness to the throat of the Englishman as to one who sees andhears the familiar sights and sounds of home after a long absence.Then the Wieroos dropped swiftly downward to the flower-starredturf that grew almost to the water's edge, the fugitives slippedfrom their backs, and Bradley told the red-robed creatures theywere free to go.

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When he had cut the ropes from their ankles they rose with thatuncanny wailing upon their lips that always brought a shudder tothe Englishman, and upon dismal wings they flapped away towardfrightful Oo-oh.

When the creatures had gone, the girl turned toward Bradley."Why did you have them bring us here?" she asked. "Now we arefar from my country. We may never live to reach it, as we areamong enemies who, while not so horrible will kill us just assurely as would the Wieroos should they capture us, and we havebefore us many marches through lands filled with savage beasts."

"There were two reasons," replied Bradley. "You told me thatthere are two Wieroo cities at the eastern end of the island.To have passed near either of them might have been to have broughtabout our heads hundreds of the creatures from whom we could notpossibly have escaped. Again, my friends must be near this spot--it cannot be over two marches to the fort of which I have told you.It is my duty to return to them. If they still live we shall finda way to return you to your people."

"And you?" asked the girl.

"I escaped from Oo-oh," replied Bradley. "I have accomplishedthe impossible once, and so I shall accomplish it again--I shallescape from Caspak."

He was not looking at her face as he answered her, and so hedid not see the shadow of sorrow that crossed her countenance.When he raised his eyes again, she was smiling.

"What you wish, I wish," said the girl.

Southward along the coast they made their way following thebeach, where the walking was best, but always keeping closeenough to trees to insure sanctuary from the beasts and reptilesthat so often menaced them. It was late in the afternoon whenthe girl suddenly seized Bradley's arm and pointed straight aheadalong the shore. "What is that?" she whispered. "What strangereptile is it?"

Bradley looked in the direction her slim forefinger indicated.He rubbed his eyes and looked again, and then he seized her wristand drew her quickly behind a clump of bushes.

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"What is it?" she asked.

"It is the most frightful reptile that the waters of the worldhave ever known," he replied. "It is a German U-boat!"

An expression of amazement and understanding lighted her features."It is the thing of which you told me," she exclaimed, "--thething that swims under the water and carries men in its belly!"

"It is," replied Bradley.

"Then why do you hide from it?" asked the girl. "You said thatnow it belonged to your friends."

"Many months have passed since I knew what was going on among myfriends," he replied. "I cannot know what has befallen them.They should have been gone from here in this vessel long since,and so I cannot understand why it is still here. I am going toinvestigate first before I show myself. When I left, there weremore Germans on the U-33 than there were men of my own party atthe fort, and I have had sufficient experience of Germans to knowthat they will bear watching--if they have not been properlywatched since I left."

Making their way through a fringe of wood that grew a few yardsinland the two crept unseen toward the U-boat which lay moored tothe shore at a point which Bradley now recognized as being nearthe oil-pool north of Dinosaur. As close as possible to thevessel they halted, crouching low among the dense vegetation, andwatched the boat for signs of human life about it. The hatcheswere closed--no one could be seen or heard. For five minutesBradley watched, and then he determined to board the submarineand investigate. He had risen to carry his decision into effectwhen there suddenly broke upon his ear, uttered in loud andmenacing tones, a volley of German oaths and expletives amongwhich he heard Englische schweinhunde repeated several times.The voice did not come from the direction of the U-boat; butfrom inland. Creeping forward Bradley reached a spot where,through the creepers hanging from the trees, he could see a partyof men coming down toward the shore.

He saw Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts and six of his men--allarmed--while marching in a little knot among them were Olson,Brady, Sinclair, Wilson, and Whitely.

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Bradley knew nothing of the disappearance of Bowen Tyler and MissLa Rue, nor of the perfidy of the Germans in shelling the fortand attempting to escape in the U-33; but he was in no waysurprised at what he saw before him.

The little party came slowly onward, the prisoners staggeringbeneath heavy cans of oil, while Schwartz, one of the Germannoncommissioned officers cursed and beat them with a stick ofwood, impartially. Von Schoenvorts walked in the rear of thecolumn, encouraging Schwartz and laughing at the discomfiture ofthe Britishers. Dietz, Heinz, and Klatz also seemed to enjoy theentertainment immensely; but two of the men--Plesser and Hindle--marched with eyes straight to the front and with scowling faces.

Bradley felt his blood boil at sight of the cowardly indignitiesbeing heaped upon his men, and in the brief span of time occupiedby the column to come abreast of where he lay hidden he made hisplans, foolhardy though he knew them. Then he drew the girlclose to him. "Stay here," he whispered. "I am going out tofight those beasts; but I shall be killed. Do not let themsee you. Do not let them take you alive. They are more cruel,more cowardly, more bestial than the Wieroos."

The girl pressed close to him, her face very white. "Go, if thatis right," she whispered; "but if you die, I shall die, for Icannot live without you." He looked sharply into her eyes."Oh!" he ejaculated. "What an idiot I have been! Nor could Ilive without you, little girl." And he drew her very close andkissed her lips. "Good-bye." He disengaged himself from herarms and looked again in time to see that the rear of the columnhad just passed him. Then he rose and leaped quickly andsilently from the jungle.

Suddenly von Schoenvorts felt an arm thrown about his neck andhis pistol jerked from its holster. He gave a cry of fright andwarning, and his men turned to see a half-naked white man holdingtheir leader securely from behind and aiming a pistol at themover his shoulder.

"Drop those guns!" came in short, sharp syllables and perfectGerman from the lips of the newcomer. "Drop them or I'll put abullet through the back of von Schoenvorts' head."

The Germans hesitated for a moment, looking first toward vonSchoenvorts and then to Schwartz, who was evidently second in

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command, for orders.

"It's the English pig, Bradley," shouted the latter, "and he'salone--go and get him!"

"Go yourself," growled Plesser. Hindle moved close to the sideof Plesser and whispered something to him. The latter nodded.Suddenly von Schoenvorts wheeled about and seized Bradley'spistol arm with both hands, "Now!" he shouted. "Come and takehim, quick!"

Schwartz and three others leaped forward; but Plesser and Hindleheld back, looking questioningly toward the English prisoners.Then Plesser spoke. "Now is your chance, Englander," hecalled in low tones. "Seize Hindle and me and take our guns fromus--we will not fight hard."

Olson and Brady were not long in acting upon the suggestion.They had seen enough of the brutal treatment von Schoenvortsaccorded his men and the especially venomous attentions hehad taken great enjoyment in according Plesser and Hindleto understand that these two might be sincere in a desirefor revenge. In another moment the two Germans were unarmedand Olson and Brady were running to the support of Bradley;but already it seemed too late.

Von Schoenvorts had managed to drag the Englishman around so thathis back was toward Schwartz and the other advancing Germans.Schwartz was almost upon Bradley with gun clubbed and ready tosmash down upon the Englishman's skull. Brady and Olson werecharging the Germans in the rear with Wilson, Whitely, andSinclair supporting them with bare fists. It seemed that Bradleywas doomed when, apparently out of space, an arrow whizzed,striking Schwartz in the side, passing half-way through his bodyto crumple him to earth. With a shriek the man fell, and at thesame time Olson and Brady saw the slim figure of a young girlstanding at the edge of the jungle coolly fitting another arrowto her bow.

Bradley had now succeeded in wrestling his arm free from vonSchoenvorts' grip and in dropping the latter with a blow from thebutt of his pistol. The rest of the English and Germans wereengaged in a hand-to-hand encounter. Plesser and Hindle standingaside from the melee and urging their comrades to surrender andjoin with the English against the tyranny of von Schoenvorts.

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Heinz and Klatz, possibly influenced by their exhortation, wereputting up but a half-hearted resistance; but Dietz, a huge,bearded, bull-necked Prussian, yelling like a maniac, sought toexterminate the Englische schweinhunde with his bayonet,fearing to fire his piece lest he kill some of his comrades.

It was Olson who engaged him, and though unused to the longGerman rifle and bayonet, he met the bull-rush of the Hun withthe cold, cruel precision and science of English bayonet-fighting.There was no feinting, no retiring and no parrying that was notalso an attack. Bayonet-fighting today is not a pretty thing tosee--it is not an artistic fencing-match in which men give andtake--it is slaughter inevitable and quickly over.

Dietz lunged once madly at Olson's throat. A short point, withjust a twist of the bayonet to the left sent the sharp blade overthe Englishman's left shoulder. Instantly he stepped close in,dropped his rifle through his hands and grasped it with bothhands close below the muzzle and with a short, sharp jab sent hisblade up beneath Dietz's chin to the brain. So quickly was thething done and so quick the withdrawal that Olson had wheeled totake on another adversary before the German's corpse had toppledto the ground.

But there were no more adversaries to take on. Heinz and Klatzhad thrown down their rifles and with hands above their headswere crying "Kamerad! Kamerad!" at the tops of their voices.Von Schoenvorts still lay where he had fallen. Plesser andHindle were explaining to Bradley that they were glad of theoutcome of the fight, as they could no longer endure thebrutality of the U-boat commander.

The remainder of the men were looking at the girl who nowadvanced slowly, her bow ready, when Bradley turned toward herand held out his hand.

"Co-Tan," he said, "unstring your bow--these are my friends,and yours." And to the Englishmen: "This is Co-Tan. You whosaw her save me from Schwartz know a part of what I owe her."

The rough men gathered about the girl, and when she spoke to themin broken English, with a smile upon her lips enhancing the charmof her irresistible accent, each and every one of them promptlyfell in love with her and constituted himself henceforth herguardian and her slave.

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A moment later the attention of each was called to Plesser by avolley of invective. They turned in time to see the man runningtoward von Schoenvorts who was just rising from the ground.Plesser carried a rifle with bayonet fixed, that he had snatchedfrom the side of Dietz's corpse. Von Schoenvorts' face was lividwith fear, his jaws working as though he would call for help; butno sound came from his blue lips.

"You struck me," shrieked Plesser. "Once, twice, three times,you struck me, pig. You murdered Schwerke--you drove him insaneby your cruelty until he took his own life. You are only one ofyour kind--they are all like you from the Kaiser down. I wishthat you were the Kaiser. Thus would I do!" And he lunged hisbayonet through von Schoenvorts' chest. Then he let his riflefall with the dying man and wheeled toward Bradley. "Here I am,"he said. "Do with me as you like. All my life I have beenkicked and cuffed by such as that, and yet always have I gone outwhen they commanded, singing, to give up my life if need be tokeep them in power. Only lately have I come to know what a foolI have been. But now I am no longer a fool, and besides, I amavenged and Schwerke is avenged, so you can kill me if you wish.Here I am."

"If I was after bein' the king," said Olson, "I'd pin the V.C. onyour noble chist; but bein' only an Irishman with a Swede name,for which God forgive me, the bist I can do is shake your hand."

"You will not be punished," said Bradley. "There are four of youleft--if you four want to come along and work with us, we willtake you; but you will come as prisoners."

"It suits me," said Plesser. "Now that the captain-lieutenant isdead you need not fear us. All our lives we have known nothingbut to obey his class. If I had not killed him, I suppose Iwould be fool enough to obey him again; but he is dead. Now wewill obey you--we must obey some one."

"And you?" Bradley turned to the other survivors of the originalcrew of the U-33. Each promised obedience.

The two dead Germans were buried in a single grave, and then theparty boarded the submarine and stowed away the oil.

Here Bradley told the men what had befallen him since the night

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of September 14th when he had disappeared so mysteriously fromthe camp upon the plateau. Now he learned for the first timethat Bowen J. Tyler, Jr., and Miss La Rue had been missing evenlonger than he and that no faintest trace of them had been discovered.

Olson told him of how the Germans had returned and waited inambush for them outside the fort, capturing them that they mightbe used to assist in the work of refining the oil and later inmanning the U-33, and Plesser told briefly of the experiences ofthe German crew under von Schoenvorts since they had escaped fromCaspak months before--of how they lost their bearings afterhaving been shelled by ships they had attempted to sneak farthernorth and how at last with provisions gone and fuel almostexhausted they had sought and at last found, more by accidentthan design, the mysterious island they had once been so glad toleave behind.

"Now," announced Bradley, "we'll plan for the future. The boathas fuel, provisions and water for a month, I believe you said,Plesser; there are ten of us to man it. We have a last sad dutyhere--we must search for Miss La Rue and Mr. Tyler. I say a sadduty because we know that we shall not find them; but it is nonethe less our duty to comb the shoreline, firing signal shells atintervals, that we at least may leave at last with full knowledgethat we have done all that men might do to locate them."

None dissented from this conviction, nor was there a voice raisedin protest against the plan to at least make assurance doublysure before quitting Caspak forever.

And so they started, cruising slowly up the coast and firing anoccasional shot from the gun. Often the vessel was brought to astop, and always there were anxious eyes scanning the shore foran answering signal. Late in the afternoon they caught sight ofa number of Band-lu warriors; but when the vessel approached theshore and the natives realized that human beings stood upon theback of the strange monster of the sea, they fled in terrorbefore Bradley could come within hailing distance.

That night they dropped anchor at the mouth of a sluggish streamwhose warm waters swarmed with millions of tiny tadpolelikeorganisms--minute human spawn starting on their precariousjourney from some inland pool toward "the beginning"--a journeywhich one in millions, perhaps, might survive to complete.Already almost at the inception of life they were being greeted

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by thousands of voracious mouths as fish and reptiles of manykinds fought to devour them, the while other and larger creaturespursued the devourers, to be, in turn, preyed upon by some otherof the countless forms that inhabit the deeps of Caprona'sfrightful sea.

The second day was practically a repetition of the first.They moved very slowly with frequent stops and once they landedin the Kro-lu country to hunt. Here they were attacked by thebow-and-arrow men, whom they could not persuade to palaverwith them. So belligerent were the natives that it becamenecessary to fire into them in order to escape their persistentand ferocious attentions.

"What chance," asked Bradley, as they were returning to the boatwith their game, "could Tyler and Miss La Rue have had among suchas these?"

But they continued on their fruitless quest, and the third day,after cruising along the shore of a deep inlet, they passed aline of lofty cliffs that formed the southern shore of the inletand rounded a sharp promontory about noon. Co-Tan and Bradleywere on deck alone, and as the new shoreline appeared beyond thepoint, the girl gave an exclamation of joy and seized the man'shand in hers.

"Oh, look!" she cried. "The Galu country! The Galu country!It is my country that I never thought to see again."

"You are glad to come again, Co-Tan?" asked Bradley.

"Oh, so glad!" she cried. "And you will come with me to my people?We may live here among them, and you will be a great warrior--oh,when Jor dies you may even be chief, for there is none so mightyas my warrior. You will come?"

Bradley shook his head. "I cannot, little Co-Tan," he answered."My country needs me, and I must go back. Maybe someday Ishall return. You will not forget me, Co-Tan?"

She looked at him in wide-eyed wonder. "You are going away fromme?" she asked in a very small voice. "You are going away from Co-Tan?"

Bradley looked down upon the little bowed head. He felt the softcheek against his bare arm; and he felt something else there too--

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hot drops of moisture that ran down to his very finger-tips andsplashed, but each one wrung from a woman's heart.

He bent low and raised the tear-stained face to his own."No, Co-Tan," he said, "I am not going away from you--for youare going with me. You are going back to my own country to bemy wife. Tell me that you will, Co-Tan." And he bent still loweryet from his height and kissed her lips. Nor did he need morethan the wonderful new light in her eyes to tell him that shewould go to the end of the world with him if he would but take her.And then the gun-crew came up from below again to fire a signalshot, and the two were brought down from the high heaven of theirnew happiness to the scarred and weather-beaten deck of the U-33.

An hour later the vessel was running close in by a shore ofwondrous beauty beside a parklike meadow that stretched back amile inland to the foot of a plateau when Whitely calledattention to a score of figures clambering downward from theelevation to the lowland below. The engines were reversed andthe boat brought to a stop while all hands gathered on deck towatch the little party coming toward them across the meadow.

"They are Galus," cried Co-Tan; "they are my own people. Let mespeak to them lest they think we come to fight them. Put meashore, my man, and I will go meet them."

The nose of the U-boat was run close in to the steep bank; butwhen Co-Tan would have run forward alone, Bradley seized her handand held her back. "I will go with you, Co-Tan," he said; andtogether they advanced to meet the oncoming party.

There were about twenty warriors moving forward in a thin line,as our infantry advance as skirmishers. Bradley could not butnotice the marked difference between this formation and themoblike methods of the lower tribes he had come in contact with,and he commented upon it to Co-Tan.

"Galu warriors always advance into battle thus," she said."The lesser people remain in a huddled group where they can scarceuse their weapons the while they present so big a mark to us thatour spears and arrows cannot miss them; but when they hurl theirsat our warriors, if they miss the first man, there is no chance thatthey will kill some one behind him.

"Stand still now," she cautioned, "and fold your arms. They will

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not harm us then."

Bradley did as he was bid, and the two stood with arms folded asthe line of warriors approached. When they had come within somefifty yards, they halted and one spoke. "Who are you and fromwhence do you come?" he asked; and then Co-Tan gave a little,glad cry and sprang forward with out-stretched arms.

"Oh, Tan!" she exclaimed. "Do you not know your little Co-Tan?"

The warrior stared, incredulous, for a moment, and then he, too,ran forward and when they met, took the girl in his arms. It wasthen that Bradley experienced to the full a sensation that wasnew to him--a sudden hatred for the strange warrior before himand a desire to kill without knowing why he would kill. He movedquickly to the girl's side and grasped her wrist.

"Who is this man?" he demanded in cold tones.

Co-Tan turned a surprised face toward the Englishman and then ofa sudden broke forth into a merry peal of laughter. "This is myfather, Brad-lee," she cried.

"And who is Brad-lee?" demanded the warrior.

"He is my man," replied Co-Tan simply.

"By what right?" insisted Tan.

And then she told him briefly of all that she had passed throughsince the Wieroos had stolen her and of how Bradley had rescuedher and sought to rescue An-Tak, her brother.

"You are satisfied with him?" asked Tan.

"Yes," replied the girl proudly.

It was then that Bradley's attention was attracted to the edge ofthe plateau by a movement there, and looking closely he saw ahorse bearing two figures sliding down the steep declivity.Once at the bottom, the animal came charging across the meadowlandat a rapid run. It was a magnificent animal--a great bay stallionwith a white-blazed face and white forelegs to the knees, itsbarrel encircled by a broad surcingle of white; and as it came toa sudden stop beside Tan, the Englishman saw that it bore a man

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and a girl--a tall man and a girl as beautiful as Co-Tan. When thegirl espied the latter, she slid from the horse and ran toward her,fairly screaming for joy.

The man dismounted and stood beside Tan. Like Bradley he wasgarbed after the fashion of the surrounding warriors; butthere was a subtle difference between him and his companion.Possibly he detected a similar difference in Bradley, for hisfirst question was, "From what country?" and though he spoke inGalu Bradley thought he detected an accent.

"England," replied Bradley.

A broad smile lighted the newcomer's face as he held out his hand."I am Tom Billings of Santa Monica, California," he said. "I knowall about you, and I'm mighty glad to find you alive."

"How did you get here?" asked Bradley. "I thought ours was theonly party of men from the outer world ever to enter Caprona."

"It was, until we came in search of Bowen J. Tyler, Jr.,"replied Billings. "We found him and sent him home with hisbride; but I was kept a prisoner here."

Bradley's face darkened--then they were not among friendsafter all. "There are ten of us down there on a German subwith small-arms and a gun," he said quickly in English."It will be no trick to get away from these people."

"You don't know my jailer," replied Billings, "or you'd not beso sure. Wait, I'll introduce you." And then turning to the girlwho had accompanied him he called her by name. "Ajor," he said,"permit me to introduce Lieutenant Bradley; Lieutenant, Mrs.Billings--my jailer!"

The Englishman laughed as he shook hands with the girl. "You arenot as good a soldier as I," he said to Billings. "Instead ofbeing taken prisoner myself I have taken one--Mrs. Bradley, thisis Mr. Billings."

Ajor, quick to understand, turned toward Co-Tan. "You are goingback with him to his country?" she asked. Co-Tan admitted it.

"You dare?" asked Ajor. "But your father will not permit it--Jor, my father, High Chief of the Galus, will not permit it, for

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like me you are cos-ata-lo. Oh, Co-Tan, if we but could!How I would love to see all the strange and wonderful things ofwhich my Tom tells me!"

Bradley bent and whispered in her ear. "Say the word and you mayboth go with us."

Billings heard and speaking in English, asked Ajor if she would go.

"Yes," she answered, "If you wish it; but you know, my Tom, thatif Jor captures us, both you and Co-Tan's man will pay thepenalty with your lives--not even his love for me nor hisadmiration for you can save you."

Bradley noticed that she spoke in English--broken English likeCo-Tan's but equally appealing. "We can easily get you aboardthe ship," he said, "on some pretext or other, and then we cansteam away. They can neither harm nor detain us, nor will wehave to fire a shot at them."

And so it was done, Bradley and Co-Tan taking Ajor and Billingsaboard to "show" them the vessel, which almost immediately raisedanchor and moved slowly out into the sea.

"I hate to do it," said Billings. "They have been fine to me.Jor and Tan are splendid men and they will think me an ingrate;but I can't waste my life here when there is so much to be donein the outer world."

As they steamed down the inland sea past the island of Oo-oh, thestories of their adventures were retold, and Bradley learned thatBowen Tyler and his bride had left the Galu country but afortnight before and that there was every reason to believe thatthe Toreador might still be lying in the Pacific not far offthe subterranean mouth of the river which emitted Caprona'sheated waters into the ocean.

Late in the second day, after running through swarms of hideousreptiles, they submerged at the point where the river enteredbeneath the cliffs and shortly after rose to the sunlit surfaceof the Pacific; but nowhere as far as they could see was sign ofanother craft. Down the coast they steamed toward the beachwhere Billings had made his crossing in the hydro-aeroplane andjust at dusk the lookout announced a light dead ahead. It provedto be aboard the Toreador, and a half-hour later there was

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such a reunion on the deck of the trig little yacht as no onethere had ever dreamed might be possible. Of the Allies therewere only Tippet and James to be mourned, and no one mourned anyof the Germans dead nor Benson, the traitor, whose ugly story wasfirst told in Bowen Tyler's manuscript.

Tyler and the rescue party had but just reached the yachtthat afternoon. They had heard, faintly, the signal shots firedby the U-33 but had been unable to locate their direction and sohad assumed that they had come from the guns of the Toreador.

It was a happy party that sailed north toward sunny, southernCalifornia, the old U-33 trailing in the wake of the Toreadorand flying with the latter the glorious Stars and Stripesbeneath which she had been born in the shipyard at Santa Monica.Three newly married couples, their bonds now duly solemnized bythe master of the ship, joyed in the peace and security of theuntracked waters of the south Pacific and the unique honeymoonwhich, had it not been for stern duty ahead, they could havewished protracted till the end of time.

And so they came one day to dock at the shipyard which BowenTyler now controlled, and here the U-33 still lies while thosewho passed so many eventful days within and because of her, havegone their various ways.


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